Ripple Effect I: Diffusion
by Alamorlan
Summary: There are many questions the galaxy could ask about the adventures of Mathias Shepard. What if Shepard's oxygen line had never severed in the destruction of the Normandy? Will he be able to fight off the Collectors without the help of Cerberus? Will the council recognize the Reapers as a threat? Follow the events of Mass Effect 2 through an Alternate Universe story. AU. Shep/Tali.
1. Chapter 1

**So, this is my second attempt at starting up this story, and that's because I just didn't feel like it was right to start in Mass Effect 1. I mean, the game is epic, but for some reason I really can't explain, I just knew my story would be better starting from Mass Effect 2. That's why this story is going up now.**

 **The premise of the story is that the Alliance was a bit less stupid about their precautions on their ships (escape-pods have a 3x3 airlock in case the front door blasts open). Seriously, Alliance? Everyone knows the first rule of space: no air means no breathing, which means death. Escape pods should certainly have more precautions in case of hull rupture. What's the weakest part of the hull? That's right, it's the only place that's thinner than the rest and opens, the door. Shepard's oxygen line didn't rupture in the beginning of ME2, leaving him conscious and able to act as he floats through space.**

 **This is an opening chapter, so don't expect much dialogue as I set up the scene and such. There'll be some, but the heavy dialogue will begin when that's all finished.**

* * *

The loud "ping" that his helmet made against the side of the _Normandy_ as he was spaced still resounded like an ever-ringing church bell. It was the only sound he could hear in his current predicament, being in a vacuum. He was spinning sideways head over feet, but because he was not spinning, he could see the open space ahead of him, twirling as if it were the galaxy spinning head over feet and not himself. Because of the lack of atmosphere, it felt like the galaxy was the thing twirling around him.

Because of the impact against his head, he could hardly think over the confused, jumbled pain that flared on the back of his head. All he knew was that the line on his suit that fed his helmet air was still in-tact, and he could still breathe. In his daze, he stared at the twirling black-space in front of him, stars and planets swirling into an infinite canvas of black, white, and the various pastel arrays of planetary systems that dotted the continuum of the universe.

 _"It's beautiful,"_ he thought while staring at the almost purple blackness of the final frontier, still unable to clearly think about his situation, his mind defaulting to the first thing that came up into his head, _"just like her, but not even close."_

The situation he was in slammed into his head like the bulkhead of the _Normandy_ 's cockpit. When he realized the danger he was in, it felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. He managed to keep himself focused as he struggled and succeeded in turning himself around, away from the infinite expanses of space, and toward the rubble of his ship. There were small pieces littering the practical graveyard of his ship, but the larger pieces were immediately in his focus as he thought of ways to make himself stop spinning. He could still survive this.

He watched in determination as he approached a large piece of the fuselage of the _Normandy_ , a large 'N' painted along the side. It was the part that used to read "Normandy," but all that was left was the 'N' and a piece of black metal that trailed behind the letter. He steeled himself as the fuselage grew ever closer, and attempted to focus despite the fact that he was cartwheeling through the expanses of space over Alchera.

" _You're Lieutenant Commander Mathias Shepard. You didn't survive Akuze and Elysium, then hunt down a rogue Spectre and save the galaxy, meeting the most adorable girl around Citadel space, just to be taken out by a surprise attack over a damned ice planet. You haven't even told her you think about her this way, so there's no way in Hell that you're going out here,"_ he determinedly marked to himself in his mind. There was absolutely no way he was dying over Alchera. He would find a way to survive, but he didn't know how. He did know that he had to make himself stop cartwheeling, however.

He was nearing the piece of his home that almost peacefully danced around in the zero-gravity environment outside Alchera's atmosphere. He prayed for the best for a moment before straightening out his legs just a bit and hoping that his cartwheeling put him in the right position at the right time. Fortunately for him, as his luck was never quite out, he felt his feet push into the piece of the fuselage, and he bent his knees into a kneel, putting all of his focus into stopping himself from sliding against the slick metal and starting to cartwheel again. He successfully caught himself on the huge chunk of armor, putting his hands against the surface of the ship. He looked straight "up," in reference to Alchera at least, and was heartened by what he saw.

There was a standard-issue, air-locked escape pod there, its engines still not on. He read the number on the side and saw that it was the same one on which Joker and Tali had seated themselves. They must have been reluctant to take off. Tali had refused to leave in any of the escape-pods taking off until she saw Shepard alive and well, and he had forced Joker into the last escape pod with her, intent on getting into it behind his flight lieutenant. An explosion caused by an unknown cruiser's main gun had rocketed him out of the hole in the ship caused by the blast, bashing his head against the bulkhead of the cockpit.

He chuckled to himself, thankful once again that Tali was such an easily worried girl. She had more than once made things easier for him by being concerned for his health, and the way that she wrung her hands whenever she was nervous was something that he was determined to see again. He hardened himself as soon as that thought hit him, and then he calculated the trajectory of his jump, how hard he would have to kick off to make it to the shuttle without flying off by it and getting caught in Alchera's atmospheric gravity.

There was maybe a one in a billion chance he could make the jump while the metal on which he stood, himself, and the shuttle were all moving at the same time.

"To hell with it."

He pushed off.

* * *

"We can't wait here for much longer, Tali! You saw what happened when the ship exploded. The chances that Shepard survived that concussion _and_ the explosion that followed it are extremely slim, and the cruiser could spot us and fire at any time. I know you don't want to think about losing the Commander, I know I don't, but we need to face the fact that he probably... died," Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau looked down at his hands as he finished that sentence. He didn't want to think about Commander Shepard dying. No one really did, but he knew it was likely.

"No, Joker! You know the Commander as well as I do. He always makes it! He has to..." Tali had been near the cockpit at the time of the attack, heading back to the elevator toward Engineering after having a small talk with Shepard and Joker about the reason for being over Alchera in the first place. She hadn't been suspicious of the events leading up to her faulty beliefs about meeting the Shadow Broker, and that had nearly cost her dearly. Something felt a bit off about the Alchera mission, especially the fact that multiple ships had gone missing before the mission's start.

As one of the engineers aboard the vessel, it was her job to worry about the ship's integrity.

"I know, Tali. I want him to make it too, like he always does, but I don't think we're that lucky this time. I'm... sorry. Losing him is actually worse than losing the _Normandy._ Shepard _is_ the _Normandy_. I hate the thought as much as you do," Joker replied, shaking his head and wincing at the pain of the broken bone in his arm. His hands were in his lap only because that was where they had fallen after he had carefully sat himself down.

 _"You don't understand, Joker. No one hates that thought more than myself, except for maybe Shepard himself,"_ she thought in reply, refusing to speak it out in fear of hurting Joker's feelings and instead looking out the side viewport of the shuttle, letting a few tears form in her eyes and roll down her face beneath the mask of her suit. She didn't know what she would do if Shepard died over this cold planet. He was practically the only person aside from her aunt and Kal'Reegar that had ever been nice to her, and even she knew in all of her denseness that it was different between herself and Shepard.

She wouldn't be able to carry on without the amount of care and effort he put toward her. Not after she had been living with it for so long.

"Joker, start... start the engines. Let's g-" she began before Joker saw her notably teary (despite the tint of her visor) eyes widen in surprise, her eyes lighting up almost immediately, then heard a sharp tap on the side viewport of their shuttle. He widened his own eyes in response and barely managed to stand to look out of the viewport. There, beyond the heavily reinforced clear plastic-like material of the viewport, was Lieutenant Commander Mathias Shepard, his eyebrows raised behind his visor and a small grin visible in the look in his eyes.

"Shepard!?" he shouted, turning to look towards Tali with extremely wide eyes.

"Open the front airlock door! Open the front airlock door!" Tali shouted, pushing the control console in front of Joker's seat into his uninjured arm, nearly with enough force to break that one as well. She was clearly overjoyed and extremely relieved.

"Ouch! Hey, watch the other arm! I need that to... nevermind. Shep would kill me if he went through Hell to get here and learn that I corrupted your mind," he joked, thumbing the front airlock controls. The outside door of the airlock immediately opened, though it didn't hold any air due to the on-board oxygen system. Tali watched Shepard turn toward the front of the pod and disappear. Less than a few seconds later, the two heard a knock on the second door, and Joker closed the first door so that the second would unlock. With a moment of apprehension abating as the two waited for the first door to close, Joker thumbed the second door's controls.

It slid open, revealing the 6'2", overbearing form of their Commander.

"If I never see a starry night sky again in my lifetime, it'll still be too soo-" he was interrupted by the slamming noise his back made against the door of the shuttle as a purple and black rocket slammed into him.

Tali had immediately stood up and launched herself toward him, wrapping both of the arms of her shorter form around his torso. He looked down at her back for a moment, his eyebrows raised in surprise and his mouth still open in anticipation of finishing what he was saying. Still, he couldn't bring himself to turn down the embrace he was in, and after a moment of hesitation, he put his arms around her, his hands resting on the small of her back. Her head nestled its way into a comfortable spot against his chest, and he felt his heart clench.

"I'm sorry for worrying you so much, Tali, Joker. It'll take more than a high-powered fusion cannon to bring me down. I'm not going out without taking out the bastards that did this to my ship and my crew," Shepard said, the first half coming out sympathetically and quite softly, the second with a harsh and scathing tone. Tali took a step back and they released one another.

"DON'T. YOU. EVER. WORRY ME LIKE THAT. AGAIN," the Quarian in front of him loudly and tearfully said, poking his chest harshly each time she stopped to emphasize what she was saying. Shepard laughed a little internally at the way she worried about him, a trace of her heritage as a Quarian, always worried about her fellow crew, but outwardly put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed comfortingly, making her posture loosen as she settled down, eventually sitting down in the seat on the left side of the pod. Shepard looked at Joker.

"Hey, you don't need to hug me or squeeze my shoulder. You already broke my arm- I want to return to the Citadel still functional, thank you very much," Joker joked flatly, making Shepard grin at his dry humor.

"Don't worry, Jeff. I didn't plan on hugging you, I just wanted to let you know that your dedication to the ship as she went down is... well, I appreciate it. Hit the beacon and let's land on Alchera. We'll wait for someone to grab us," Shepard responded, much to the surprise of Joker, who had never been called by his first name by Shepard before. He slowly smiled and started the pod's engines, watching through the side viewport as Alchera approached.

"Aye-aye, sir."

* * *

The Citadel was as lively as ever, Shepard noted. There were people of all races (except Quarian, Shepard had noted along with Tali) shuffling about the massive live-station on every walkway and side-alley. The shops of the Citadel were always full, and the restaurants were always bristling with customers. It was one of those restaurants to which Shepard and Tali were heading, specifically a dextro and levo joint-food restaurant. The rest of the surviving crew had been granted an indefinite shore-leave as there was no ship to return to. They were incredibly lucky that another Alliance scout frigate, the _SSV_ _Endra_ , just happened to be sent by the Alliance after the unknown ship had left. It had managed to pick them up after picking up their beacons' signals.

He had lost more than twenty crew-members to that unknown vessel, and he was determined to eventually figure out who or what they were, then bring them to justice. There was no chance that he was going to let some unknown entity show up, blow up _his_ ship, kill _his_ crew, then get away without so much as a scratch. That he would not stand for. The ship that picked them up was sent to determine their fate, and he had been furious to have to deliver a report to the council the moment he arrived on the Citadel.

The councilors, to his surprise (save Anderson, whose reaction he expected), were sympathetic for the loss of his crew, but nothing could be done about the deceased. Instead, Anderson had stated his intentions in light of the information to negotiate with the Turians to see if they could push forward the plans they had drawn up for a second generation of stealth-frigates, the _Normandy_ _II_ class, keeping the namesake of the old class out of respect for its accomplishments.

The plan would take two years to complete.

In that interim, Shepard would surprisingly be gifted command of a relatively new destroyer-class ship, a step up in size from a frigate. That wouldn't be officially put into place for at least six months as the ship was still docked, on a long list of repairs still backlogged from Sovereign's attack on the citadel. It would be out in six months at the least, a year at the most. He hoped for the six month avenue.

His interim ship's name was the _SSV Nelson,_ named after a general in the First American Civil War and a lieutenant commander in the American Navy. He appreciated the attempt to link himself and the seafaring general, but thought that it fell a little flat considering why he was getting a new ship in the first place. Still, he did feel a glimmer of relief after learning that he would be commanding a vessel again by a year in the future at most. Until then, he would stay on the Citadel and try to help C-Sec with whatever he could, perhaps become a bit of a home-defense vigilante Spectre.

The end of the meeting led to a small discussion with Tali about what they were going to do in the meantime. That eventually fell down a slippery slope to talking with the entire squad. The non-specialized crew of the _Normandy_ , the bridge officers and the marines mostly, had been provided with housing and training areas capable of holding Alliance soldiers for two years, and a steady stream of living money that was just enough to get by with food and perhaps extranet access.

A third of his squad, Joker, and Chakwas, however, had nowhere to be but stranded, and so he had rented out an apartment complex (the entire thing) with the massive amount of credits he had saved up. It took less than five minutes to file out that paperwork, and then the apartment block was theirs. Garrus, Tali, himself, Joker, and Chakwas would stay there for the time they required housing.

Tali had refused to go back to the Migrant Fleet until Shepard himself could come with her to ensure that he could fill in the gaps of her report and vouch for the data he had given her on the Geth. She needed someone who was good with diplomacy and speech, and definitely someone who cared about her people. Shepard loved the Quarians almost as much as he loved his own people, specifically because he would visit Tali every day in Engineering to ask questions about her and her people.

Garrus refused to leave Shepard, seeing as they were practically brothers by the time the _Normandy_ was destroyed. His claim was that "wherever Shepard goes to kick ass, I go to take names." Both he and Shepard were determined to find a good set of weapon-cleaning and repair stations to put in his apartment so he wasn't bored senseless for at least six months.

Liara had decided to leave the group temporarily and go off to do some more research, maybe get in contact with someone that she knew. Shepard had wished her well; he'd miss the doe-eyed, innocently naive Asari. She had promised to stay in contact over the two years, saying that she would be happy to rejoin the _Normandy_ once they actually _had_ a _Normandy_.

Wrex had been able to find a way off the Citadel that would take him back to Tuchanka, something which had at first made Shepard rather sad about losing half of his fighting strength. After Wrex mentioned reuniting the Krogan for whenever the Reapers decided to show up, he lightened up and wished the Krogan luck. He had promised Wrex that he would visit Tuchanka after the _Nelson_ was out of the repair dock.

Kaidan had decided to go his own way for the two years ahead. It wasn't out of a dislike for Shepard or anything similar; he just couldn't stand to wait around for a full six months to a year without doing something. He was a soldier, and an active one at that, and so Shepard had released him from his obligations as a crewmember of the _Normandy,_ but only until the _Normandy_ _SR2_ was up and running and under his command.

Joker was Joker, and that meant that there was no way he was going to go anywhere else in the galaxy when in a short amount of time he could be piloting another ship for Shepard. The _Nelson_ was no _Normandy_ , but as far as he was concerned, Shepard was the _Normandy_. Whichever ship Shepard commanded would just as good as the _Normandy_ , even if it did not have on it what the old ship did.

Finally, Chakwas had decided that the remaining crew of the _Normandy_ still required her doctoral services. She had claimed one of the apartments in Shepard's rented out block, and had already started searching for ways to turn at least half of it into a makeshift clinic. As far as she was concerned, the crew of the _Normandy_ was her family, and Shepard was like a son to her, so she could not leave them behind on the Citadel to chase other ventures. Shepard was glad she was staying.

That talk had finished and each of his squad had gone their own way- all except for Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. His favorite (though he would never admit it to Garrus and the rest) crew member had followed him out of the council room, stepping up beside him and going where he went. There was about thirty minutes of contented silence between them before he had suggested that they head to one of the commercial wards for dinner and possibly some shopping. She had accepted without a moment's hesitation, and that led to where Shepard found himself at 6:00 PM on the Citadel.

They stepped into the doorway of the levo/dextro establishment, catching sight of a customer base of mostly Turians and Humans, but there were Asari and even a Krogan or two dotted over the restaurant. Just like practically everywhere else on the Citadel, there were no Quarians to be found. With such a small number of Quarians even alive in the galaxy, and with their need to keep their resources close, it was expected that no Quarians would be on the Citadel. Still, without Shepard being so nice to her, it would have made Tali uncomfortable.

"Hello sir, please follow me to a table," a pretty Asari girl (as if "girl" could be used to describe someone who was most likely over 100) said. When it was clear that they would follow, she picked up two menus, led them to a table, gave them their menus, and gave a rather suggestively flirtatious look at Shepard, before moving back to the front to let their waitress or waiter pick them up.

"So, Tali, you're staying in the apartment block with the squad until I can find a way to take you to the Migrant Fleet. What do you think will happen when we get there?" Shepard asked, flipping through the menu without really reading anything, looking up over it when he heard her take a breath to nervously reply.

"Well... when we get back to the fleet, I will hand the Geth data over to the captain of the ship I want to serve on on the fleet- I'll be coming back with you, don't worry, Shepard. Auntie and I have been in contact and I think she's managed to get me leave once I've finished my pilgrimage. I'll be free to go where I wish so long as I'm with you... so I'm free to go where you want me to be," Tali replied, wringing her hands over the table the entire time. Shepard couldn't help but smile a little at the familiar nervous gesture.

"You don't have to stay with me, Tali. You know everyone on my crew has the choice to leave whenever they want. Now, whether or not I'd like you to stay with me, that's a different story. I can't say I'd like to watch you head back to the Fleet right this minute. I've gotten used to finding you around Engineering and then picking your brain for information about your people," he returned, putting down his menu as he figured out what to order.

"The experience is the same for me, Shepard. I don't see myself leaving you any time soon. Umm... the crew, that is," Tali finished the conversation as their waitress, a Human in her early twenties by her looks, sauntered up to the table and put her hands on the side of it, leaning down just a bit and smiling.

"Hi, my name is Kayla. What can I get you to drink today?" she asked, looking directly at Shepard and ignoring the Quarian on the other side of the table.

"Hello. I'll have some water and a coffee, please. Dark brown, just a tad of sugar," Shepard said, watching the waitress write down the order and then turn back to the front counter of the restaurant, not acknowledging Tali at all. Shepard bristled and furrowed his eyebrows, looking at Tali in concern. "Did you order anything already while I wasn't looking, by chance?"

"No, Shepard, I didn't. Don't worry about it. I didn't want a drink anyway," Tali said, ever the one to avoid verbal conflict. It didn't sit right with Shepard, who crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the waitress to return. When she did, he gestured to Tali with his eyes, though the waitress didn't pick up on it, and she pulled out a notepad again.

"And what can I get you to eat today, sir?" she asked, putting pen to paper.

"I'll have the twelve-ounce steak and fries, please," he said in return, giving the waitress a stern warning with his eyes. She wasn't a member of his crew, unfortunately, so she didn't take the hint, instead turning to walk off toward the counter again. She stopped when Shepard grabbed her arm firmly, tugging her gently back to the table, though it didn't feel gentle for the girl on the receiving end.

"Sir!" she said through her teeth, tugging her arm back toward her.

"Her order," Shepard nodded towards Tali.

"Sir, please, let me finish-" she was interrupted immediately.

"Take her order. Now. Drinks too," Shepard finished dangerously.

"Of... of course, sir. How silly of me," the waitress said, turning towards Tali with obvious contempt. "What will you have, _ma'am_?"

"I think I've lost my appetite, actually. Shepard, why don't we go somewhere else?" she leaned in and whispered through her vocal transmitter, "Before someone decides to cause a scene," she concluded. Shepard looked at her for a second or two before coming to a decision and releasing the waitress's arm, standing up and reaching a hand out to Tali to help her up and lead her out the door.

"Sir, you forgot to pay for your drinks!" the waitress called out behind them, following them toward the door but stopping before they got out into the walkways.

"Being around you was taxation enough, lady," Shepard scathingly returned, not turning his head and leading Tali, who was surprised and a bit embarrassed that he was still holding her hand, out the door. When they got halfway down the block, Shepard released her hand and leaned up against one of the guardrails in the middle of the walkway, letting Tali stop beside him and tilt her head at him in confusion.

"What is it, Shepard?" she asked, one of her eyes glowing at half-size, a sign she had raised one of her eyebrows.

"Sorry about that, Tali. I just don't like it when people come to conclusions about an entire race based on stereotypes. That waitress was out of line," he replied, putting his hands on the guardrail and pushing himself up to sit down on it, an arm leaning on his knees.

"Sorry? You? Shepard, you didn't do anything wrong," Tali incredulously replied, "If anything, you did everything right. Thank you for caring. Not many do, not about Quarians at least," she said, leaning on the guardrail beside him and watching the people walk by.

"Yeah, well... I have a bit of an interest in the Quarian people, being that my favorite crew member is one. Don't tell Garrus, by the way. He'd drink the entire bar block out of stock if I didn't admit he was the best," Shepard laughed quietly, starting to watch the people passing by like Tali was.

The girl beside him was a bit stuck on what he had just said. She was the first to admit amongst anyone that her and Shepard had a bit more than a friendship going on, especially since he was the only one she was comfortable about sharing physical contact with. On a Quarian ship, every member of the crew was just as important as the other, and the captains rarely fraternized, but if they did, it was a symbol of great care, expected to be used only on family members and love interests. She knew that he didn't mean it _that_ way, at least she thought that he didn't. Still, he had said that she was his _favorite_ , something that was unheard of on a Quarian ship.

He was part of mankind, though, so she knew the meaning was different. It was almost as though he were saying something else entirely, like a hidden confession of care or something similar. Shepard was outwardly supportive and furiously nice to everyone on his crew, she knew, but she was the only one who knew about his missions on Akuze and Elysium. She felt as if it was his way of saying that he cared more than she thought. It was a heartwarming gesture coming from someone who already cared so much.

She let those thoughts die down before they led to something more unthinkable, at least on the fleet. Shepard was a sweet man, and just as loyal to her as she was to him. The same was true with the rest of the crew. He needed someone who could show him the same level of trust as he could to them. She couldn't even reveal her face to him. There was no way that she would be able to show him how much she trusted him without risking a fatal infection. Every time she started thinking too much about him, her heart broke, so she pushed it down and stayed happy when he was near.

Then again, he was always so happy to see her, and she was the only one he liked to pick on besides Garrus, and if he had picked on Garrus the same way he picked on her, well... that would have been weird.

Unbeknownst to her, Shepard was having similar thoughts. He had just admitted to her that she was his favorite crewmate. Though it was said in a joking tone, he knew that many a truth was said in jest, and it didn't seem as if Tali had picked up on the humor. She was a sweet, naive girl compared to most of the military personnel he had met in the past, but then, Tali was no member of any military. She was just a sweet Quarian girl on her pilgrimage, seeking refuge and help on her mission in the confines of his crew.

Every time he had visited her in Engineering, he had asked more questions about the Quarian people, making sure to file away all of the information into a special place in his mind, wanting to make sure that if they got what they needed to return her to her people, he would know exactly what to do and say. After he had gotten to know her a bit better, he started to ask more about her specifically, then he stopped asking about the fleet altogether and they started sharing stories and information from their pasts.

She had trusted him with knowledge about her fleet, and eventually about the people she considered family. After she proved how much he could trust her long before she helped him with stopping Saren, he trusted her without question to do what needed to be done on their mission. After she worriedly tore through rubble to find him on the Citadel after Sovereign's attack, rambling to him about how worried she was once she found him, he smiled whenever she was close. Not long after that, he told her all about Akuze and Elysium, down to the most horrifying details.

She had known exactly how to comfort him, despite never having done it before.

He cut those thoughts off right away, furrowing his brow and shunning them, or so he hoped. She cared about him because he was a part of the ship's crew, and especially because he was her acting captain. She was obligated by her people's nature to care. Besides, she probably thought he was too busy or combat-oriented to go that soft. Sure, he cared for all of his crew, her especially, but he was a monster on the battlefield. The fact that they were friends in the first place was probably as lucky as it got.

Then again, she was always so happy to see him, and he was the only one she liked to pick on besides Garrus, and if she had picked on Garrus the same way she picked on him, well... that would have been weird.

"Hey, Tali, we should-"

"Shepard, I think we need to tal-"

They blinked, then Shepard smiled and gestured toward her.

"You should go first, Tali," he said, and she nodded shyly.

"I think we should find somewhere to have a talk, Shepard," she managed to get out, wringing her hands and looking down at her feet.

"I was going to say the same thing. Come on, let's head to the apartments and I'll get you some dextro rations from the cabinets. Then we can talk," he replied. She nodded shortly, twiddling both of her first fingers, and then walking beside him to the apartment.

* * *

He sat on the back of the couch beside her as she opened the ration tube, feeding it through the induction port on the front of her mask. He would never quite get used to the unnatural way the suit worked. He was happy that Tali had it there to protect her, but he hated that she had to wear it in the first place. It felt off to him, like it was some form of universal injustice. Then again, he guessed that everyone on the team had some form of unfortunate universal injustice going for them.

Tali had her suit, and her people were teetering between life and death.

Garrus had family issues.

Kaidan had an unclear past.

Ashley had had a family curse.

Liara was a bit too curious for her own good, and naive to boot.

Wrex's people suffered from the genophage.

Joker could hardly move without breaking a bone.

Chakwas had watched more than her share of soldiers die under her care.

And Shepard... he'd lost too many men to count.

They were a disfunctional band of misfits, wreaking havoc across the galaxy in an unending quest to make it a better place. In that way, they were all brothers and sisters in hardship, sharing burdens and stories as they went along. That was why they did so well together. Shepard wouldn't let that get away from him for all of the credits in the galaxy... mainly because that would be terrible for the economy, but also because it was something he cherished greatly.

Still, if he could pick one crew member's problems to fix first, he would choose Tali's problems first. He just felt as if she deserved the right to walk around outside of that smothering suit of hers, and he knew that if he was in her position, he would feel entrapped, especially since she wouldn't let him go into combat without her. It must have played hell on her nerves during the Geth attacks if her suit could really be ruptured at any time.

"Credit chit for your thoughts?" he heard the cute, accented voice of his companion ask. He looked over at her, half of his brain still thinking about her people's issues.

"I'm thinking about how much I'd like to see you out of that suit of yours," he said without thinking.

"Umm..." was all she could say in reply. He heard her concerned and unsure tone. When he realized what he had just indirectly said, he looked up to see her eyes widening behind her visor, her arms coming up to let her hands wring themselves out and the purplish blush actually visible through her mask. He palmed his face and groaned at his own clumsiness.

"Not that way, Tali. I was just thinking about how I hate that you have to wear it, is all. It doesn't seem fair that after all your people have gone through, you all have to spend your lives in fear of what most of us just ignore. I mean, if I get a cold, I just shrug it off for a few days and it goes away. If you get a cold, you could die. I don't like it. Your people don't deserve that. You... You definitely don't deserve that. You're too good for that," he said, ever the caring one he was.

"Shepard..." came Tali's breathless reply. She kept toying with her thumbs as she looked down at the ground, the half-empty tube of nutrient paste long forgotten. She knew he cared about her people, but she didn't know he cared that much.

"I'm going to find a way to get you a homeworld where you can take off your suits in peace. The Reapers are on their way, I know, and that's more important in the short term, but in the long term... If I were on my death bed and there was even the slightest chance I could get Rannoch back, I'd fight death himself to retake it. You've got a beautiful personality, and a cunning engineer's mind. You deserve a place where you can let both out unchained," he continued, shaking his head and looking down at the ground, just like Tali was. Silence loomed in the room for a moment before Tali carefully stopped leaning on the couch, stepping toward him and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Thank you for caring, Shepard. If anyone can do it, it's you. When the time comes, I'm sure the Quarian people will be right behind you, and I'll be there to back you up. Just... thank you," she whispered against his chest, though he could hear it because of her vocal transmitter.

"What did you need to talk about, Tali?" he whispered back, knowing that now that his thoughts were almost completely open, hers would be as well.

"I don't have anything else I can say about what you just told me, but after that, I feel more confident about what I'm about to ask," Tali said, stepping back, obviously more nervous than he thought possible.

"If you have a question for me, Tali, please go ahead. You know I'll talk to you about anything," he said, giving a gentle smile at how she put her hands behind her back and looked up at him, her eyes nervously blinking two or three times.

"Shepard, what are your thoughts..." she corrected herself, "How do you feel about me?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned at he ground, silently contemplating how to best answer the question she had just asked. He thought silently for a moment or two, watching over time as her feet were still, then she started to lightly tap one of them on the ground in quirky, nervous anticipation. When he found the right words to put into a sentence, he could see from her eyes that her confidence was starting to drop, so he cleared his throat and started.

"Tali, I care about you more than I think you know- knew, after I admitted my ambition. The cure for the genophage is right up there, I think, with the Quarians' issues, but I would choose the latter over the former every single time. Since I found you on the Citadel and took you onto the _Normandy_ , I learned everything about your people that I could, then about you, then I let you in and told you everything about me.

"You know how hard it is for me to open up to other people about my issues. I prefer to help other people with their own issues, not the other way around. Tali, I've only ever told you and Anderson about my thoughts on Akuze and Elysium. The only people who know exactly what happened on those missions are yourself, me, Anderson, and whoever files reports to the top brass in the Alliance. What I'm saying, Tali, is that I trust you, sometimes more than I trust myself, and..." he stopped, clearing his throat and looking into her visor, where he could see by her glowing eyes that she was smiling, though he could see a shimmering glow in one of her eyes that looked like a tear.

"And?" she asked in a tone that seemed hopeful to him, putting her hands together in front of her, looking up at him with that beaming look in her eyes, as if he had already gifted her a homeworld.

"And I may not be good at saying how I feel sometimes, but I want you to know that... I want to stop caring about your Quarian duties, and my captain status. What I suppose I'm trying to say is that I would like to... try a relationship with you. Would... would that be okay with you, Tali?" he felt his heartbeat picking up significantly. Shove him into combat without a weapon and on low shields, with no armor or medical supplies, and he would be perfectly calm. He would get the mission done. Shove him in front of Tali and tell him to talk about feelings, and his confidence suddenly disappeared.

For a moment they just looked at one another as Tali's heartbeat stopped. She stared him in the eyes and bounced on her feet twice, blushing behind her visor and staring down at her feet, unsure what she should say in return. When she looked back up and saw Shepard's confidence faltering this time, she came to a decision and didn't hesitate at all. Without a second thought, she jumped forward and squeezed him as hard as she could, putting the side of her head against his chest like she always did after he said something sweet.

"Yes, Mathias, I think... I think I'd like that very much," she whispered.

When they left to meet the team for drinks that evening, they left bearing good news.


	2. Chapter 2

**The second chapter always follows the** **first closely with me, and the third more closely than most would think. Thankfully, I don't plan on either this story or my Skryim story falling into writer's block like the Naruto story has.**

 **Lots of timeskips this chapter, as the time before Shepard gets a ship would probably not be too action-filled.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **September 3, 2183; Galactic Standard Time**

"So the two of them finally managed to pair up, eh? Guess Tali finally let it slip how she felt about the Commander," Garrus said, finishing off the alcoholic drink in his glass. Joker, who was sitting beside him and gossiping like his job required at times, shook his head and chuckled.

"No, Garrus. That's what's so surprising about it. We all knew that those two spent a lot of time together, but you wouldn't believe who actually told the other their feelings first," Joker replied, cracking a grin when Garrus seemed flabbergasted. Joker polished off the rest of his drink and pushed his glass forward with his good hand, cradling his broken arm.

"You mean Shepard, _the_ Commander Mathias "Denser Than Steel" Shepard, told Tali how _he_ felt? Spirits, the world must be ending! Say a prayer for me before I die!" Garrus outlandishly jested, making Joker crack up and nearly spit out his own drink at how serous Garrus managed to sound.

"She asked him how he felt about her, but I don't think she was expecting as fully-fleshed an answer as she says he gave. She practically pulled Chakwas and I into a room to tell us. I can see why Shepard fell for her. She is kind of cute when she's excited," Joker finally managed.

"Careful there, Lieutenant. I don't want to see Shepard step on your toes or something," Garrus joked, "I think Tali was just about willing to tell anyone and everyone she came across about it. Shepard, the poor guy, has no idea what he's gotten into. That girl is absolutely in love with him," Garrus replied seriously. Tali was his best friend, and Shepard was like his brother. He could only hope that everything worked out for the both of them.

"Yeah, I know whatcha mean, but the other way around. The only reason you weren't here for when Shepard and Tali pulled the entire team into a room to talk to us about it over drinks is that you were out talking to C-Sec. Let me tell ya, I don't think Shepard could have told her how he felt if he hadn't been completely taken with her. She was all he would talk about after he got back from Engineering every night. I think they were just meant for one another, ya know?" Joker sincerely said. Garrus wasn't alone in his care for their shipmates. Shepard was like an older cousin or brother in a way, like he was to the rest of the crew save Tali, and the girl in question was so easy to get along with that he couldn't help but like the girl.

"I think you're right. Do you think either of us ugly mugs will ever meet our Tali? I mean, if Shepard can do it, I know I can, at least. Don't know about you, though. I think your hairline might be too far gone underneath that cap," Garrus chuckled, hearing Joker guffaw.

"Says the man whose race doesn't even _have_ any hair!" Garrus laughed again, calling the bartender for another drink. Surprisingly, the attractive Asari tending the bar winked at Joker and turned to Garrus.

"I think your handsome friend here looks like he could charm more than a few girls' hearts, hair or not. You know, Asari don't care much for hair anyway." She kissed Joker on the cheek, filled Garrus's glass, then sauntered away to answer another customer's call. Joker blinked, then smirked and looked over at Garrus, who grumbled and snorted.

"Hmph. Fine, she proved your point for you. Let's finish these drinks up and head home before she breaks your other arm, or maybe even your hip," Garrus said, making Joker actually spit out his drink this time. Joker, despite being covered in whiskey, laughed aloud.

"Bastard! I'll get you back for that one!"

As Garrus carefully accompanied Joker back to the squad's apartment block, making sure the pilot never tripped or accidentally ran into anyone, he checked the time. It was nearing midnight.

* * *

Shepard stopped examining the datapad in his hands, the reports on the progress of the _SSV Nelson_ 's repairs lying alone on the chair as he stood up to get the door. He checked the time on his way and saw that it was just a quarter after midnight, and whoever was knocking was probably on his squad. He pulled open the door and raised an eyebrow when he saw Tali standing there, hands twiddling in front of her waist, looking up cutely at him from the doorway.

"Tali! Not that it's not good to see you, but what do you need at a time like midnight?" he asked, his brow still raised a bit.

"Erm... Well, you see, Shepard... Uhm... When we were on the _Normandy_ , I told you about how it was hard to sleep in the quiet. Well, the gadget you got me to make noise was destroyed with the _Normandy_ and I can't sleep again, so I came over to see if you... had anything that could help," she looked down at her feet for a second and then back up at him, tilting her head with a small smile as she saw him beam down at her.

"I forgot about that after I got you that little ticker. Sorry for not thinking about it earlier, Tali. Come on, let's head out," he said, grabbing his N7 windbreaker off of the hook by the door.

"Wait, right now? Shepard, you don't have to get me something right this instant! If you don't have anything, I can wait until tomorrow," she said, almost panicking. She thought he went out of the way for her too much already, and though she had never complained about him jumping in front of enemies or taking a few rounds for her, mainly because he wouldn't let her, she felt that this tiny amount of kindness was more than she deserved.

"That's nonsense, Tali. Come on, one day without sleep can ruin you for an entire week, trust me. We'll head out, see what shops are open, and if we can't find anything, I'll let you have my room, with the music player," he replied, hushing her argument almost instantly. She gave in and followed him out of the apartment complex, looking down at his hand as he led them off toward a shopping district. Without hesitating too much, she reached out and put her palm against his, feeling him wrap his fingers around her hand and rub it gently. She grinned behind her visor when she saw a gentle smile ease its way onto his face.

"Do you ever wonder what people would think about the great Commander Shepard if they found out he was dating a Quarian?" she launched from out of nowhere, though Shepard could tell from her tone that she was at least partially joking.

"Never even crossed my mind, now that I think about it. You know I've never really cared about all of the public opinion that comes with the job. You and the crew are the only people I want to be famous to. Why do you ask? Feeling self-conscious?" he replied, squeezing her three-fingered hand and looking left and right for open shops.

"I don't see any open shops on this block. Maybe we should move over another one and try there. And no, I don't feel self-conscious at all. How could I? It's not every day that a young Quarian girl out on her pilgrimage finds a Commander Shepard to snag with her feminine charms," she poked, her smile growing a fraction when Shepard laughed under his breath.

"Snag, huh? Didn't know I was attractive enough to be considered a 'catch,'" Shepard covertly fished for an answer, rejecting a Volus's shop that was open, but looked shady, and looking ahead again.

"Keelah, Shepard! Have you even been on the extranet since we took down Saren?" Tali responded, becoming confused when Shepard stopped and laughed, reaching one arm around her waist and pulling her in for a one-armed hug.

"I'm glad that you've been looking me up, Tali. Do I have something to worry about there?" he asked, trying to keep the laugh out of his tone.

"No... N-NO! No, Shepard, most definitely not. I mean, I've seen one or two of... I didn't mean to... Oh, damn it," Tali cursed, burying her visor in Shepard's chest to hide her face. She could feel his chest vibrate as he laughed out loud, wrapping his second arm around her and just holding her as her embarrassment ran its course.

"It's alright, Tali. I forgive you for being a little bit curious. I mean, you know that to humans, Quarians have attractive body-types, right?" Shepard tried to compromise by throwing her a proverbial life-preserver. If she thought he thought of her like that too (which he did; those hips were fantastic), she would get over her embarrassment much more quickly.

"I didn't know that. Is that really true?" he heard the girl ask, looking up at him from below. He put a hand on each of her shoulders and looked down at her with a comforting grin.

"There's really nothing to be embarrassed about. I knew there were some... less than appropriate vids of people imitating me out there, and I can't really blame you for being a little curious, though I'm sure you stumbled into them by accident somehow. As for your question, yes, Quarian body-types, at least the female ones that I've seen from you and some pictures you've shown me of the Fleet, are, well... I think Joker would call them 'hot,'" Shepard finalized, watching as Tali tilted her head to the side and let those thoughts simmer for a few seconds.

"And what about you? What do you think about my body?" she teased, and Shepard let a mischievous grin cover his face.

"I'm a lucky guy. You're quite the catch, yourself, if those hips have anything to say about it," he responded, matching her voice pound-for-pound, and her seductive facade broke down as she received a response she didn't expect. She buried her visor into his chest again.

"Keelah, there's no way I'd ever win a teasing match against you."

The two of them smiled, though neither of them could see the other's face. Shortly, Tali recovered, and the two of them set off to find an open trinket shop.

* * *

 **December 7, 2183; Galactic Standard Time**

It had been three months since the crew of the _Normandy_ had arrived for their extended leave on the Citadel. Nothing interesting had happened over the course of their stay, at least not that any of them knew about. Shepard and Tali had slowly grown a bit more comfortable with their relationship, and with enough healthy teasing from Shepard and every member of the squad, Tali was more confident about picking on Shepard in return. She was still shy around certain topics, and Shepard found fun in trying to make her blush.

Joker's arm had healed entirely, and Chakwas had basically set up a small clinic just for the crew in her apartment. The pilot of the crew was intent on keeping in practice for when he had another ship to control, and so Shepard had allowed him to rent shuttles and other smaller craft to fly, though the commander was adamant that Joker had to be careful, lest he end up in a medical dilemma with his bones' fragility. As a measure of extra safety, Chakwas had decided to accompany Joker on his flights, sometimes to her own detriment, considering how he liked to maneuver the shuttles.

Garrus bought (half with Shepard's money, that is) a few weapons stations and installed them into his room, spending his spare time jesting at Tali and Shepard, drinking with some of the crew, or taking apart and putting his guns back together. Shepard had joked that Garrus would sooner find someone he liked in a gun-shop than he would a bar or club. The Turian of their team was inclined to agree, even going so far as to put a sign up on his door that said "Single and deadly."

Tali had been in contact with Admiral Shala'Raan, convincing her to speak with the captain of the Neema, Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema, and see if she could talk him into releasing her for leave until Shepard's mission was over once she officially finished her pilgrimage. She was confident that it would go well enough since Admiral Gerrel was a friend to her family, and had practically been like an uncle to her. In the meantime, she found herself overly distracted by either physical training or her new love-interest, sometimes at the same time, since he was the one helping her with her exercises.

Shepard had been keeping himself in shape by trying to get Tali to keep up with him in some of the exercises he did before he entered the N7 program, which left her gasping for air as he easily surpassed her. He had calmly insisted that all she needed to do was keep the exercises on a constant schedule and make sure that she did her best each time and she would eventually be able to keep up with him. He had also taken the time to get a large vidscreen in his apartment room, something that made Tali incredibly happy to join him after dinner each night, though they rarely went out, preferring to stay in the apartment building and watch whatever was on for the night.

The repairs on the _SSV_ _Nelson_ were going along well, and Shepard expected that he would have the ship in the next three or four months, though he wasn't counting on it entirely. He knew how paperwork and delays worked, so he wasn't too sure that his judgment was correct. He came to the conclusion that any ship other than another Normandy-class frigate would feel too different from the _Normandy_ for him to feel too comfortable with captaining it. He looked forward to the day when the Alliance finished the _Normandy II-_ class design.

He had spent any free time he had after exercise on tracking down and removing certain mercenary, criminal, or trafficking threats, something that took up a significant portion of his time every day. Still, he was able to spend some time with Tali and keep in shape at the same time, so it wasn't like he would complain about his situation. He had even been paid a few stipends from the bounties of the criminals he would bring in. Life on the Citadel was going well, at least considering that he was still having to count down the time until he got a new ship to command.

He just hoped that after the time he was spending on the Citadel, he would still have enough time to prepare the galaxy for the threat of the Reapers.

* * *

"Give me the reports on the Alchera Incident," the rough, slightly accented voice of The Illusive Man called out, reaching a hand out to take a datapad from one of his informants, taking the yellow and gray device from the man's hands and pulling the documents up onto the screen. His agents had successfully scoured the surface of Alchera for the wreck of the _Normandy_ , and he was looking forward to finding something useful that could lead to the betterment of Cerberus's goals.

"Sir, as you can see from the report, Commander Shepard's body was not found at the wreck's location, and the rest of the planet's surface shows no sign of his genetic material whatsoever. The probes returned negative on everything but the controls of the Mako in the wreckage. We were able to successfully collect deoxyribonucleic acid samples of each of Shepard's squadmates in the Mako, all except for Tali'Zorah," his agent reported, standing at attention and glancing at The Illusive Man in quiet anxiety.

The Illusive Man tightened his left fist at the lack of a body, but eased a bit after the report on the DNA samples. The council had been silent about the Alchera Incident, and no reports from his agents had arrived describing whether Shepard had turned up alive or dead anywhere else in the galaxy. He had assumed that Shepard had died on the wreck, as if he had survived, he assumed that the man would have a ship and a crew given to him within a day, going off to save the galaxy or something once again. There was also the fact that some of his squadmates; T'Soni, Alenko, and Wrex; had been spotted and tracked heading toward planets in different systems. Based on former behavioral patterns, The Illusive Man had determined that they would most likely only do this if Shepard had perished, or been permanently disabled as an asset.

"It's as good as I suppose we're going to get. Very well, get Team Orion working on the contingency plan immediately," The Illusive Man calmly said to his agent, watching as the man smartly saluted and left the room to contact Team Orion. If Cerberus couldn't have the actual Commander Shepard and his team, they would have to settle for the next best thing: Cerberus would make their own.

* * *

 **March 15, 2184; Galactic Standard Time**

Shepard woke up to the sound of knocking on the door to his apartment, staring up at the ceiling as his eyes opened wide to the sound of a hand on the wood of the door. He blinked the moisture out of his eyes and looked over at the clock on the bedside table, noting that he had slept a few hours more than he would have a few months before. It was nearing 9:00 AM, late for any soldier. He looked down at the metallic feeling weight on his left shoulder, seeing that Tali had turned her head in her sleep and practically stabbed his arm with the bottom of her visor. Shepard rubbed the hand attached to that arm up and down her back, shaking her gently, hoping it wouldn't take much to wake her up.

"Tali, wake up. We have company today," he whispered, smiling as she mumbled something in Khelish, squeezing the arm she had claimed as her pillow. "Come on, Miss Zorah, it's time to get up," he repeated, shaking her with his arm again.

"Just five more minutes, Shepard. I want to finish this dream," she replied, half-asleep. He shook his head and let a small laugh out, carefully extracting his arm from her iron grip and getting up out of the bed, his pajama pants the only thing covering him after removing the blanket and sheets. When he heard the sharp knocking of a hand on a door again, he walked around the bed and rolled Tali onto her back, picking her up in a bridal carry and listening to her lightly cry out in surprise, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Come on, let's go meet whoever's calling for us," he insisted, smirking as she looked at him with a mock glare through her visor.

"It was a good dream that you just interrupted," she said, crossing her arms over her chest as she was carried to the door, bracing her legs when Shepard put her down in front of it. Shepard reached forward and opened the door, still quite uncovered except for his pajama pants, which were low on his waist due to morning laziness. Tali rested her head on his shoulder with her arms around his chest. She was quite keen on physical contact, he had found over the past six months.

It was unfortunate for the person on the other side that he happened to be nearly completely uncovered, for he opened the door to a short, pretty, redheaded ensign in Alliance blues. She was holding a clipboard under her right arm and her cap in her left hand, scratching at her forehead with the forearm of her left arm and placing the cap back onto her head before she looked up at the two people standing in the doorway and gawked, clearing her throat and looking away with reddened cheeks.

"S... sir. Ahem... Commander, that is... I'm Ensign Rachel Matthews. I have the latest reports on the _SSV_ _Nelson_ , straight from Admiral Hackett himself. I... Err... The ship's nearly finished with its repairs and I need you, sir, to, umm... I need you to accompany me to its port so you can go over the touch-ups," the poor messenger ensign looked anywhere but at Shepard, even settling for looking at Tali's face behind her mask as she clumsily tried to put the clipboard in Shepard's hand.

"Thanks, ensign. We'll be back out of our room in a moment. Please wait outside," he said, watching as the ensign was about to bring an arm up to salute. "And don't salute me while I'm in my pajamas, Matthews. Don't want you to get in trouble for breaking an Alliance code," he quickly finished, letting the nervous, flustered girl move a bit down the hall as he closed the door.

"She seemed excited," Tali teased, pushing Shepard toward _their_ room, smiling as he didn't protest at all, instead enjoying the playful shoves his girlfriend was giving him.

"Oh, shush, Tali. It's your fault for making me sleep in this every night, you know," he poked back.

"What can I say? I like seeing you shirtless, Shepard."

The two were ready to go in a few moments, though that was to be expected when one of them was a man and the other was a Quarian. There was nothing for either of them to do but make sure that Shepard got dressed. Tali enjoyed being in the same room as the man as he changed out of his pajama pants, but her least favorite part of each day was seeing him put on a shirt for the day.

She really did enjoy seeing him shirtless.

* * *

The ship was massive in comparison to the _Normandy_. Shepard was sure that it would need at least twice the crew to run it as smoothly as the _Normandy_ ran, but since his crew was merging with the surviving crew of the destroyer, he didn't think that would be an issue at all. In fact, by his calculations, he would have two or three extra hands on deck. That was only an issue when it came to supplies, but since he had been managing his credits in a very financially sound way, he could afford a bit of surplus on food and ammunition.

The only issue he had with the ship was its bridge. A captain's chair was in the center of the bridge, a few feet behind the pilot's chair. It was something that he would never use. The computing devices on the walls of the bridge where the communications and calibrations officers would reside for their shifts were arranged in a way that seemed deliberately less efficient than they could be. That was something that irked him slightly, but he would only be gifted one ship, so he had to let it slide. Finally, unlike the _Normandy_ , the _Nelson_ 's bridge-to-ship communications were not at the behest of the captain. Instead, all communications from the bridge to the rest of the ship would have to be relayed through an internal communications officer in the back corner of the room.

That was the one thing he insisted be fixed before he would allow himself to captain the ship. If he needed something done for the mission, he needed it done _yesterday_ , so there was no sense in making it pass through an extra middle-man. Fortunately, he was afforded a bit of leeway in touching up his ship, and he had been assured that the communications could be fixed to allow him to communicate directly with the crew. All in all, he was happy to have a ship, but it definitely wasn't as good for him as the _Normandy_ was.

Tali was more disappointed than he was when it came to examinations of the ship, however. The technology in the engineering deck was slightly outdated, but not by much. That wasn't her complaint. Instead, she had an issue with the exact parts used in the engines and their interactions with the systems of the ship. Apparently, she had spotted a few parts on the deck alone that were unreliable at best, and so after a rant about the reliability of the engines defining the reliability of the ship, Shepard had promised Tali that after the ship was no longer under Alliance control, they would immediately update the ship's parts and systems. That had placated the irritated Quarian girl.

Overall, things were worse than they could have been, but if they each fixed a few problems, their situation was much better than either of the two expected. The galaxy would soon have its hero back, and he was intent on being ready for _them_ to come. He wouldn't lose.

They would have to kill him first.


	3. Chapter 3

**Onward!**

 **That's all I've got to say about that.**

 **September 13, 2184; Galactic Standard Time**

The _SSV Nelson_ didn't handle as well as the _Normandy_ at all, and for all the room it had aboard, there was almost no way for anyone to find a private area for some quiet thought. While there were a few break-rooms and a mess-hall on board, there were no doors to speak of except for at the bulkhead leading into the bridge and the doorways leading into the officers' quarters. Even the sleeping-pod barracks on the port and starboard sides of the ship didn't have any doors.

Since the crew were often on board without any action for days at a time (especially considering that there were no conflicts to speak of aside from the occasional pirate scandal) and Shepard was waiting for sources from the Systems Alliance to contact him with information about possible help with the Reaper threat, all the crew of the _Nelson_ could do was wait patiently and upgrade their gear whenever a new piece of equipment came out.

Commander Shepard himself was an action-loving man, and since he was a soldier by heart (with a few biotics capabilites, he may have noted), the silence and the waiting were killing his brain. It wasn't all terrible, however. It had been a year since he and Tali had decided to start a relationship, and as much as Garrus suffered from having no private time to think, at least Tali shared the captain's quarters with him, so she could have some time to collect her thoughts if she ever gave up the Quarian work attitude.

Shepard spotted Tali glaring at the core of the _Nelson_ when she had a moment of respite from calibrations, obviously scorned that it wasn't the drive-core of the _Normandy_. As much as he missed the frigate, Tali most certainly missed it much more than he did. There was something to be said when a Quarian of Tali's caliber was impressed by a piece of hardware, and the _Normandy_ drive-core was _very_ impressive to her.

Joker swore at the controls of the destroyer often, and nearly had fits every time something didn't go as smoothly as it should have. Shepard had actually grown worried that the pilot would accidentally break his own fingers, the man was balling his fists so hard sometimes. Still, there were moments when Joker would pull a maneuver that reminded Shepard of their time nary a year ago, when the pilot was at the helm of the most advanced ship in history.

Sliding his thumb across the pirate-quelling report he was reading, Shepard sighed and tossed the poor bit of tech onto his desk, making the pad clatter around and slide to the edge, and stepped toward the elevator to make rounds around the destroyer and talk to his crew once again. It had been a long six months since he had taken command of the ship, and it was grating on his nerves that there was nothing happening.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something extremely big was going to happen soon, and the anxious waiting that he had to do while he anticipated what that event could be grated at his nerves. Shepard knew the first place he would visit would be Engineering. Even a short discussion about the many confusing bits of the ship with Tali always cheered him up.

The elevator doors closed in front of him and he found himself staring up at the ceiling of the elevator, descending three floors to the Engineering & Cargo deck. Something strange tickled at the back of his head as he let himself wander through his thoughts on his way to see his girlfriend. He knew something was about to happen.

He just didn't know exactly what that something was.

* * *

 **Three days earlier: September 10, 2184; Galactic Standard Time**

TIM sat in his chair, swirling it around absently as he scrolled through a report on Project Effigy. He had scrapped the plans for Project Lazarus following the discovery that Shepard hadn't died over Alchera, and thus his revival would not be necessary. The new project, Project Effigy, had more promise as a beneficial asset to his personal war against the Reapers. He had also decided to push back his plans for the Quarian Flotilla following the same report. Had he been able to recover Shepard's body on Alchera, he would not have to spend so many resources on his trump card, but as Shepard had survived, well... he had to use plenty of resources jump-starting Project Effigy.

The extra few months had allowed him to build more ships and stockpile more money and supplies. He had a formidable fleet building in the background, something of which he was proud. The way things were going for him, even without the real Lieutenant Commander Shepard, he would be able to launch his full plan in a much shorter amount of time than first calculated. The speed of his plans, however, would be slightly affected by his plans for the Migrant Fleet. Thus, he was pooling all of his resources into one go at the Fleet.

The attack on the Quarian Flotilla would be bigger and better with more resources.

The Illusive Man puffed the smoke of his cigarette away from his face, taking a sip of the whiskey in the glass next to him and finishing his reading of the report on Project Effigy. His scientists had been doing some very quick work for the past nine months, and he was pleasantly surprised at their progress. If this continued, he would have what he wanted in just over a year. He snuffed out his cigarette as he tapped a button on the side of his chair, waiting for the doors behind him to slide open and reveal the leader of Team Orion.

"You've done some very good work," The Illusive Man called to the man behind him, staring out at the blue and red star past the viewport on the side of his base. The glowing star shimmered blue for a moment before returning to its old mixture of colors, and The Illusive Man chuckled before turning his chair to look at his project lead.

"Thank you, sir. What do you need from me?" the man replied, holding out his omni-tool to type out his instructions.

"Project Effigy's result needs an overseer, someone who has researched Shepard enough to know his ins and outs without ever meeting him, someone who I trust beyond a doubt. Find Miss Lawson," he handed the man one of the datapads resting on the left arm of his chair, "and deliver these orders to her personally. I would normally relay these orders to her through comms, but you need to iron out a few details with her when you meet. She will oversee the final operations of Project Effigy, his... test-run. Her location is included on that datapad. Make sure it disappears once you're done with it," he finished, lighting another cigarette and giving it a small puff.

"Yes, sir. I'll find Miss Lawson right away," the man accepted, taking the datapad and briskly walking out of the room. As the door slid shut, The Illusive Man turned and looked into the star that he always watched for quiet thought. The star blazed a vibrant blue for a few moments, filling his chamber with a radiant array of violets and blues as the unique light of the sun meshed with the light of the consoles beside him. He chuckled.

"Shepard, I know you're out there," The Illusive Man smiled, watching as the sun occasionally pulsed or retracted its blue and red light, "and I'm going to find you. If this doesn't lure you out of hiding, nothing will."

His smile waned as his Quantum Entanglement Communicator lit up and the form of a stout admiral appeared before him, that of the Cerberus Assault Fleet, or CERAF for short. The admiral was also the captain of his capital ship, the _CFS (Cerberus Flagship) Rising Sun_. Without the do-it-all attitude of the original Commander Shepard, The Illusive Man had decided to form an assault fleet earlier than he had at first wished. While Cerberus was extremely low on manpower to begin with, that had easily been fixed with a few changes in policy and plenty of money.

"Admiral Yorrich, this meeting was unexpected," TIM said, seeming intrigued, "so why are you contacting me?"

"CERAF is ready to begin the assault, sir. With the informant's information, we can be at the Fleet's location in three days time, by your orders," Yorrich answered, licking his dry lips and running his gloved thumb over the armrest of his chair. He was a tall and burly man with a heavy Scandinavian accent, though whether it was Finnish or something else was unknown, something that was rare outside of the biosphere of Earth. Ever since the unification of the Baltic States and their subsequent annexation of Scandinavia, those accents had all but died off.

"Very good, Admiral. The result of Project Effigy will be at your location in less than a day. Once he arrives, launch the attack at your behest. The lives of their fleet and yours are in your hands," TIM replied, tapping the button on his chair to hang up the QEC. Things were about to get interesting.

* * *

 **September 13, 2184; Galactic Standard Time**

The elevator slowed to a stop, making a metallic sound as the base of the platform latched into the floor- a safety mechanism not found on more advanced ships due to their more futuristic elevator designs. It was a small discomfort that set the _Nelson_ apart from the types of ships Shepard was used to serving on. As the doors of the elevators slid open, the pulleys in the opening mechanism creaked, making Shepard close an eye in a silent cringe. The ship wasn't that old, but the Alliance could have at least given it a tune-up after it nearly got blasted to bits by Sovereign.

The doors opened fully to reveal a Quarian girl in her mid twenties tapping away on her omni-tool, oblivious to what she was doing as she stepped forward to get into the elevator and immediately bumped directly into his chest, shaking her head and looking up at him. He noted that her eyes lit up as soon as she saw him, and she nearly bounced on her heels as soon as she caught sight of the gentle smile growing on his face. So long as they weren't in battle, seeing Tali always managed to put a smile on his face, and sometimes she managed it even in the middle of a conflict. There was just something about her...

"Tali, I was just coming down to see my favorite Quarian. Have you got time to share a word or two?" Shepard asked in an upbeat voice. He could already feel all of the pressures of the past few days floating out of his mind.

"Of course, Mathias. I always have time for you. Hit the button for Command; I was heading up to check on some of the connections between there and Engineering," she replied, her smile noticeable in her tone. Shepard complied, tapping the button on the side of the doorway.

"I was just coming down to check up on you after working through a few reports, Tali, and I was wondering if you could make time today to meet up in the mess and have a talk. Since we've started accepting requests from Hackett and the Alliance, it feels like we haven't had time to talk at all," Shepard finished his explanation for why he was searching for her, watching as the words above the doorway shifted to say "Crew Quarters."

"That sounds great, Shepard. As soon as I finish checking up on the power throughout the ship, I'll come down to the mess and we'll catch up," the Quarian responded, tapping at her omni-tool again as statistics on the ship fluttered through the data in front of her face. She looked entrenched in what she was doing, so Shepard stood back, a small smile tilting the edges of his lips. He started to think about the upcoming year, and what it would mean for him and Tali to finally be aboard a new _Normandy_.

A small electronic sound, that of a messaging system on Tali's omni-tool, interrupted his thoughts and he looked over to see the eyes beneath Tali's visor widen in something akin to horror. As she read on, she let her other hand rise to the voice-projector on her visor, covering it much like a human would when shocked. Shepard, concerned, stepped forward and put a hand on Tali's shoulder as she moved her omni-tool for him to read, too stunned to read it out loud.

 _From: Admiralty Board, Migrant Fleet_

 _To: Tali'Zorah vas Neema and twenty thousand others_

 _This is a message to all Quarians on pilgrimage whose registries to their service-ships on the Migrant Fleet are not currently in contemplation, or whose pilgrimages are not temporarily on hold due to extenuating circumstances, as well as those not on pilgrimage but otherwise separated from the Fleet._

 _Under no circumstances should any Quarian who is currently on pilgrimage or separated from the Fleet return to the Migrant Fleet until another message is sent relieving them of this order. Today, on September 13, 2184; Galactic Standard Time, at precisely 0800, what seems to be a massive fleet of ships of unknown origin were detected less than a day of travel from the Migrant Fleet. They were tracked for an hour before it was determined that their course was set directly toward the Migrant Fleet._

 _Upon entering a range previously thought to be too far for weapons engagement, the flagship of this fleet opened fire with its main-gun, firing a projectile of unknown type that tore through six Fleet ships and continued into space behind the Flotilla. Those six ships were not live-ships, but the losses were still devastating. The first shot claimed a figure of an estimated three thousand six hundred Quarian lives._

 _The Fleet was able to escape any further damage by immediately initiating evasive maneuvers, but the enemy ships are still in pursuit._

 _Below is the list of ships destroyed by the first shot aimed at the Migrant Fleet and their designations, including their method of acquisition and number of casualties:_

 ** _VTV (Volus Trade Vessel) Kuiton, , purchased as a part of a number of ships sold by the Volus per trade treaty and converted into a civilian vessel, 1,678_**

 _ **PAV (Primarchy Assault Vessel) Limar, decomissioned frigate, recovered from ship graveyard, 600+**_

 _ **SSV (Systems Alliance Space Vessel) Blue Ridge, destroyer, gifted by the Systems Alliance, 467**_

 _ **SSV (Systems Alliance Space Vessel) Ilimar, frigate, gifted by the Systems Alliance, 250+**_

 _ **Pali'tor, Quarian civilian research vessel, Quarian original vessel, 300+**_

 _ **Pali'tir, sister ship to Pali'tor, Quarian original vessel, 300+**_

 _May our Ancestors be with those who have lost their lives on this day. We must remind, again, that no pilgrim or otherwise relocated Quarian is to return to the Migrant Fleet under any circumstances unless another message is sent belaying this message. If no message is sent by three months in the future, the worst is to be assumed._

 _Keelah Se'lai, and Ancestors help us._

 _To: Tali'Zorah vas Neema and twenty thousand others_

 _From: Admiralty Board, Migrant Fleet_

"Shepard..." Tali was speechless, her eyes welting up with unshed tears as the horror of what she had just read flew through her mind. That was thirty six hundred Quarian lives, put out like a light. It was the Quarian equivalent to humanity losing four hundred twenty four million lives in less than a second, with their population.

"We're going there. We're going there right now, and I'm going to slaughter whoever is behind this," Mathias growled out, shooting out of the elevator as soon as the door opened and coming up behind Joker at his seat.

"Shepard, there's no way that we can stand up to a full fleet of ships with just the _Nelson_. The way that technology sounds, there's no way that the Migrant Fleet can either. My species may be... The Quarians might be finished," Tali tearfully argued, looking as defeated as she sounded.

"No, no... I won't accept that. I will NOT fucking accept that. No one is committing a mass-genocide today. Tali, I know you think we can't do anything about this, but I am goddamned Mathias Shepard, and if there is one thing I will not tolerate, it's the senseless deaths of millions of innocent people. Where is the Migrant Fleet?" Shepard slammed his fist down on the console beside the pilot's chair, getting a small cry of protest from Joker.

"Mathias, there's no-" she was cut off.

 **"** WHERE IS THE MIGRANT FLEET!?" Shepard shouted, his voice loud and gruff, his fist slamming down on the console again, making Tali take a step back and everyone on the bridge look over at the cockpit, stunned to hear Shepard yelling. He was rarely angry, but when he asked this time, he looked absolutely incensed. Tali hesitated before thumbing open her omni-tool and tapping around until she found what she was looking for.

"J-just outside of the Hades Cluster," she replied shakily, obviously offset by Shepard's shouting.

"Thank you, Tali, and I'm sorry. Upload those coordinates to the control console. We'll talk on our way there. Joker, how far are we from the coordinates Tali gave you?" he asked, turning toward the pilot in question. Joker waited until those coordinates appeared before him and then did the math.

"Approximately three hours from the nearest relay, Commander. After that, it'll be another hour and a half to catch up to them if we're lucky," Joker read out his calculations, nervously tapping on the armrest of his chair. He didn't like the idea of taking what he saw as a bucket of bolts into new-age space combat.

"Plot a course. I want us there yesterday. Tali, those power connections can wait until we're done. For now, come with me; we need to talk about this," Mathias didn't wait for a reply, his neck still straining as he attempted to prevent his face from curling into an angry snarl. It didn't matter anyway, as Tali wordlessly followed behind him, staring down at the ground and toying with her fingers like she always did when she was nervous. She was still crying behind her mask, but no one could hear. She had turned her vocalizer off.

* * *

"If you get a shot on one of their live-ships, Lieutenant, you take the chance," Admiral Yorrich said, grinning with his gnarled lips, forming a vicious grimace beyond the nightmares of even the most hardy of Alliance soldiers. His head was terribly scarred as a result of his history of getting into large and unyielding battles. As a result, every expression that appeared on his face looked like a mauled version of the same snarl. Yorrich's hair was shaven away so that his admiral's cap would better conform to his head, and he had no facial hair of which to speak.

There was something in his stature that easily frightened those around him, and he immediately backed up the impressions he gave by executing the first executive officer he had had on the ship. The man had dared to question something he had ordered, and he had immediately found a round from a Carnifex hand-cannon passing through what used to be his skull. The admiral took nothing more seriously than his word, and he expected every order to be carried out perfectly and without question. Still, every man serving under him was afraid of him. They had a good reason to be aside from his ruthlessness- he stood a head taller than most men, and he was massive. He commanded through brute-force, though he was still an effective strategist.

He got the job done when it was needed, and killed anyone who said it wasn't.

"Yes sir, targeting the live-ships with the main cannon. We are slowly catching up to them, sir," the ordinance officer replied, occasionally tapping buttons or flipping switches, monitoring firing solutions.

"Sir, I estimate that at our current rate of closure, we will be in range in approximately five hours," the navigations officer added.

"Good, good. Tell the men on the gunnery deck to be prepared with the primary cannon as well as cannons two through six. I want them to load them with... hmm... let's try the armor piercing, timed detonation ammunition, shall we? I want to be able to count down to detonation," Yorrich finalized, grinning even wider at the thought of thousands of Quarians scrambling to perform repairs on damage caused by an armor-piercing shell, only to be baptized in the flames of its timed explosion.

"Wilco, sir. Gunnery sergeants will relay orders to personnel to load APTD ammunition. Do you want those fired all at once, or in salvos, sir?" the ordinance officer questioned in return, getting a thoughtful sigh out of the admiral.

"I wonder... Perhaps we should have guns two through six fire a volley first, and then when they detonate, we'll fire the main cannon. How does that sound, Lieutenant?" Yorrich responded, polishing one of the buttons on his uniform as if he were talking about a pleasant stroll through the town library.

"Excellent, sir. We will be prepared to fire in thirty seconds. Gunnery personnel will stand by for fire orders when we catch up to the enemy ships," the lieutenant replied, just as easily and as casually as the admiral.

* * *

"I understand that our chances are slim, Tali, but any chance we have of helping your people is worth taking. I thought you would agree!" Shepard said with a slightly raised voice. He was in the middle of a philosophical argument about the survival of the _Nelson_ and the Quarian people, and his opponent was his Quarian girlfriend, who he was surprised to note had taken an odd position on the entire thing.

"If I were alone, Shepard, I would agree, but I'm dragging you and your ship into this! They're my people! You don't have to die for them!" Tali nearly shouted back, throwing her hands up in the air at the end to display her frustration and anxiety.

"Dragging? Tali, you're not dragging anyone into this but yourself! I'm the one dragging the crew into a battle they probably can't win! You're not the one who gave the order to head to the Hades Cluster, I am! Just listen to me for a minute!" Shepard tried, but Tali cut him off.

"It doesn't matter whether I listen or not because either way, my people are about to die, and you're about to send us in after them! We can't fight an entire combat fleet of that magnitude and advancement! Mathias, the Migrant Fleet doesn't have that many combat-ready ships, but the ones we do have are good at what they do. Their weapons have the longest range we can manage. If the admirals thought they were out of range and they still managed to hit and destroy six Fleet vessels, we don't stand a chance!" she ranted, poking Shepard on the chest harshly with the last sentence to drive the point home.

"The only reason we don't stand a chance is because we're not there, and I'm fixing that by getting us there as fast as possible," Shepard started, shouting, "We're going to do this, and we're going to do it right. I love you, Tali, and I don't want any of my crew to die, much less all of it..." his voice softened, "... but I also don't want to see you go on without a people, without a hope for your species. You aren't as emotionally hardened as a Krogan, Tali; you can't take not having a future for your people. That sadness... I don't want to watch you wither away like I did after Akuze" as he finished, his voice was tender, and Tali couldn't help but let her will break as she thought about what he'd said.

"I know, Shepard, I know, and I won't. Thank you for saying that. I understand how much you care, but please make sure that you tell Joker to be extra careful with the ship. She's not like the _Normandy_. And... I love you too. Let's get the marines ready to possibly board an enemy ship," she softly replied, her denial crumbling as her voice lowered to just above a whisper. When Mathias talked like he did with as much conviction and confidence as he always had, it always convinced her. She just knew that he would get her people through this, and Ancestors help whoever was behind this if any more of her people died.

Because Shepard would have no mercy.

 **If anyone can find out what I did with the Cerberus Assault Fleet name (CERAF), you get cookie-points, and a mention in the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Steamrolling through chapters is what I do best, though my writing suffers for it sometimes. Let's get this chapter going as well, then.**

 **I forgot to disclaim this content on the first few chapters, so here's a story-wide disclaimer so I don't have to type out one every single chapter. I'm not sure if that's how it works, but hey, I'll try either way.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or any content related to Mass Effect, or anything owned by BioWare, EA, or other parent companies of the series.**

* * *

"Order the gunnery deck to fire cannons two through six, Lieutenant. I want to see more spaced Quarians before the day is done," Yorrich ordered, watching as the ordinance officer thumbed the fire order, then bracing himself on his feet when the entire ship quaked. The massive ship-to-ship cannons on the side of the dreadnought lobbed rounds the size of softballs at speeds faster than any ship could match, with a few kilometers per second to spare. Those rounds barreled out of the guns in a steadfast charge toward the Migrant Fleet, the pseudo-nuclear shells rocketing through the open nothingness of space like light particles through light-fiber. The CERAF flagship and its fleet had managed to catch up to the Fleet sooner than expected, and the consequences were dire.

The ships of the Flotilla didn't stand a chance.

The five rounds blasted apart all they touched, some stopping after hitting a single ship, some passing through the smaller ships and burying themselves deeply into the ships behind them. Within a few seconds, seven more ships were destroyed and two more had delayed-explosive APTD rounds inside of them. Within the next minute, those ships were gone as well. Without a single blink, Admiral Yorrich had just ordered the deaths of another six thousand Quarians. They had plenty more ammunition to load.

Things weren't all going well for the Cerberus fleet, however. The massive live-ships were almost impossible to hit, even with the armor-piercing rounds that they could load. Every time the Quarians presumed another shot would be fired, the ships around the massive civilian vessels would swarm around them and form an impenetrable barrier of metal and Quarian lives. Each time a hole was opened, more ships would fill its place. It was quite frustrating, and Yorrich found himself enjoying each bout of rounds fired less and less as the frustration of impatience irked him.

"Sir, nine ships were destroyed by the shots directly, and six were crippled by the blasts. What are your orders?" the logistics officer, an uptight human woman with deathly pale skin, called out. That position was practically useless aboard the massive Cerberus dreadnought, but Yorrich did enjoy hearing the amount of casualties he inflicted.

"Load the same cannons again. Keep punching until they don't have ships large enough to cover those blasted live-ships," Yorrich ordered, then turned to the observation port to watch as what few battle-ready vessels the Quarians had faced off against his brand new and top-of-the-line fleet's frigates, destroyers, and cruisers. It was almost a massacre of epic proportions if not for the fact that his fighter-pilots were having a rough time keeping up with the well-trained and heavily-experienced Quarian pilots. He had lost a frigate and two destroyers thus far, but his losses were nothing in comparison to those of the Quarians, whose entire species was weeping in agony as he took chunks off of their tiny population.

"Aye, sir," the ordinance officer, a young blond man with the bars of a lieutenant on his collar said, relaying the orders down to the gunnery deck. There was silence for a moment before the lieutenant gave the report that the guns were ready to fire. The admiral immediately gave the fire order, and so the onslaught continued.

He hadn't even unleashed Project Effigy's crew yet.

* * *

"We're exiting the Hades Cluster now, Commander. We should be able to see the Fleet in less than a half-hour of flight. Keep yourself braced, Shep," Joker reported, closing the comms to Shepard before kicking the _Nelson_ into full-gear, the guns loaded and the torpedoes primed for combat. The way that Shepard and his lover seemed desperate only hammered home the implication that they would soon be in combat befitting of a full-scale war. Whoever was behind the attacks, they had just declared war on Tali's people, and Mathias would never stand for that.

It was a cold and silent half-hour on the _Nelson_ , everyone aboard, even Garrus, holding their breath in anticipation of the coming conflict. The marines aboard were prepped for ship-to-ship boarding parties, and they would be under the direct command of the commander. It was the dream of every marine, from recruit to veteran, to serve under an N7, a Spectre, or a war-hero, and they were serving under all three in one man. That at least made the morale of the boarding party rise to extreme heights. Shepard was as nervous as anyone else, as he always was, but he would never show it. It would look bad to the men if they were to see him shaking in his boots at the thought of a probable suicide mission.

Mathias walked up to the comms station at the head of the bridge, hovering his fingers over the transmit button and thinking of what to say as they entered into what could possibly be the deaths of all of those aboard the ship. Finally coming upon a convincing and convicted speech, he tapped the button and held it, raising his voice confidently.

"In the next thirty minutes, we'll be entering a warzone, a battle between the Quarian Flotilla and an unknown fleet of hostiles that emerged out of the darkness of space to kill innocent men, women, and children," he started, taking a moment to collect his anger and hide it from his words, "In the next forty-five minutes, we'll be engaging in that combat. I'll be brutally honest with you, crew; we're going up against an enemy we know nothing about, with allies whose ships and weapons are outdated by years, decades, or even centuries. There's a high chance we won't make it out of this one alive.

"But each and every one of you, men, Quarian, Turian, or otherwise, is a hero. Some of you pledged your support for me on the original _Normandy_. Some of you pledged your support on the Citadel before boarding the _Nelson_. All of you are blindly following me into Hell without a second glance back over your shoulders. That's an enormous weight to bear, and just know that whatever happens, everyone on this crew will bear it with you. It's been an honor to serve with you all, regardless of how long you've been serving under me. We may make it out, we may not, but either way, let's give these bastards a fight they'll never forget!" he finished, listening as the cheers and shouts of the crew, even the ones who had only recently met him, filling the decks of the _Nelson_.

They would be going into the fight blindly, but at least they would be going together, and boldly so.

* * *

"Fire," was the simple order given by the admiral, the guns on the ship shaking the dreadnought to its core and causing the officers on the bridge to brace in their seats. Yorrich quite enjoyed those guns; he'd have to see if he could fit a few more to the side of the ship if The Illusive Man could be convinced of the necessity. He was sure he would be able to talk the man into putting out a bit more money for the cause of the fleet.

Another five rounds, another few destroyed Quarian vessels, another devastating casualty list.

 _"This is a most peaceful way to spend a morning. The view is amazing,_ _"_ thought the admiral as he watched the chaos unfold through the viewport on the bridge. It wouldn't be long now before the Quarian live-ships were exposed for his main battery to fire. While he knew the massive gun could punch through multiple smaller Quarian ships, he wasn't willing to risk the long reload time after missing the first shot and hitting a few frigates and a merchant ship instead of his intended target. He needed to bore a hole through the ship-wall that was the Flotilla, then launch another of the monstrous gun's rounds.

He was right about one thing, though; there was beauty in the carnage. The bridge glowed a dull red as the colors of the flaming explosions before his eyes filled the emptiness around him with their light. The entire room around him was bathed in a sea of flickering reds, yellows, and oranges. A single shadow, formed due to the positioning of the Flotilla higher (in insignificant, relative terms, at least) than his own ship, covered his face down to his eerie grin, flashing up and down to occasionally show off the gnarled face of the man ordered to slaughter an entire people.

His red and orange reverie was broken when a flash of blue cleared past his viewport and suddenly one of the frigates beside his dreadnought split into pieces, crew members being spaced and blown apart as the vessel tore into three distinct pieces. The explosion that shook the other escorts near it was dark blue, a noble and deeply hopeful color that flashed into the viewport and fully lit the dim bridge behind him, then flicked into existence over his face as well. Yorrich snarled as he watched what looked to be an Alliance destroyer zip past his dreadnought and approach the Quarian combat frigates.

Then, as quickly as his snarl came, it was replaced by a grisly smile as the admiral understood just who had come to the beck and call of the Quarian people.

"Commander Addison, relay the command to Project Effigy that his assignment has just begun. Make sure he targets that destroyer," the admiral calmly said, looking at his new executive officer. The man simply nodded and brought his finger up to his earpiece, relaying the order through a private channel to Project Effigy's ship.

The show would carry on, only it was about to get much more interesting.

* * *

"Bank around the Quarian vessels and light up those enemy light-assault ships! I don't want any of the allied frigates destroyed, Joker!" Mathias nearly shouted into his comms, jogging toward the transport bay and practically taking the entire armory with him as he sped towards his anticipated ship-to-ship boarding party. His heavy N7 armor was fully pressurized and prepared to spend a small amount of time in space if necessary, though he hoped he wouldn't need to experience something like Alchera ever again.

"That's a tall order, Commander. I'm not sure if this destroyer can pull off what I knew the _Normandy_ could, but I'll give it my best. We'll be deploying the shuttles at high speeds; the enemy fleet doesn't have any carriers, so I'm not expecting heavy fighter resistance, and the Quarian fighters should be able to take the heat off of you. We can't be too careful, though," the pilot replied.

Shepard reached the shuttle bay just in time to watch the squad of marines that would take the second shuttle load into the space-faring taxi. They were all dressed in commando armor, with the latest assault rifles and the latest shields. He hoped it would be enough to take on whatever resistance they met on the ships they ended up boarding, because the name of their game was ship-hopping. There were a number of escort cruisers in the center of the fleet, but the primary target was the dreadnought. They would never make it to the capital ship if they didn't take out the escort cruisers first, though, and so they would be going from one ship to the next. Shepard switched comms to his platoon and opened his channel.

"Alright, men, we're going straight into the belly of the beast on this one. We don't know how much resistance there will be, and boarding is an extremely antiquated method of taking down a ship, but there's no way we can take out that many cruisers with the Quarian frigates and one Alliance destroyer. We'll have to do it the old-fashioned way and hope for the best. I hope we're lucky and we all make it out of this alive, but I can't promise you your safety. Let's get the job done," he finished, stepping up into his squad's shuttle with Tali and Garrus behind him.

"Oorah! Oorah! Oorah!" was all he heard from the comms as each of the Alliance marines shouted their battle-cry into the radio, most likely pumping their fists in their own shuttle. He smiled a regretful smile, knowing that for some of those men, it would probably be their last shout. He was proud of them.

"Shuttle pilots are ready to go. We'll be launching the shuttles in thirty seconds, Commander. Hold tight... and good luck," came the voice of Joker, once again managing to somehow fit space-combat and talking over comms into the same span of time. The man really was an incredible pilot. Shepard looked around at Tali, Garrus, and the five marines that had joined the fight as part of his own squad. He showed his regretfully smiling look to Tali and Garrus, who both looked at him with understanding and sympathy, then raised his own hand in a fist-pump the likes of which he hadn't performed since his days as a lieutenant.

"Oorah!" The marines joined him in shouting, and all the fear in the world was gone.

Then he felt weightless as the shuttle-bay opened and his insane bastard of a pilot let the shuttles take off at nearly full flight-speed. The shuttles they were using were designed to take heavy-gravity atmospheric reentry at speeds higher than most destroyers could manage without hitting a relay, so the shuttles were fine. It was making sure that they weren't ejected into immediate anti-ship fire or even an enemy ship's path that was up to the pilot of the _Nelson_ , and Joker was the best of the best. Thus, Mathias felt his entire body go weightless with an artificial feeling of confidence and hardiness as he counted up the seconds the shuttle had survived without being blasted apart by enemy fire.

He looked out the viewport of the transport shuttle to look as the second shuttle weaved left and right like their own to dodge debris and the occasional slow-moving torpedo. He could see the pulses of enemy and friendly rounds pass or bounce off of the light armor of the shuttle as enemy fighters buzzed by, firing at their Quarian adversaries. He saw Tali nervously stare out of the viewport on the other side, then heard a massive screeching noise and a large bang as something impacted the top of the shuttle, then he watched through his viewport as the right wing of an enemy fighter bounced off of the shuttle and flew out into space, colliding with a Quarian fighter and causing both to explode in a ball of fire, tumbling forward through space at many times the speed of sound.

The pings, thumps, and denting noises that played out and echoed into the shuttle reminded him of the stories he had heard about a date and part of the world after which the _Normandy_ had been named, June 6 of 1944; Normandy, France. Watching the events outside of the shuttle and hearing all of the rounds nearly finding their marks, only to bounce off of the hull after hitting the armor at the wrong angle made him feel as if he knew exactly what those men had gone through. He was a hardened battle veteran, and still it was already starting to be the most agonizing few minutes of his life. He felt like he was helpless, and he practically was until the shuttle reached its target.

Suddenly, the reinforced transparent metal that made up the viewport of the shuttle dented inward, the shuttle tumbling sideways for a few seconds before the pilot righted their flight pattern as a particularly large round hit a piece of debris next to the shuttle, and Shepard immediately knew that they were in for a fierce few moments of Hell. He recognized the type of round that had just hit that debris. Quickly reaching up to tap into his comms, he called out to Joker.

"Joker, there are enemy ships with ship-to-fighter flak guns on them. I need you to spot and remove that threat im-" he was interrupted as one of the rounds went off right below the shuttle and jostled everyone aboard, making him slam back into his seat and hit the back of his helmet against the wall. He went to finger his comms button again, but Joker responded.

"Will do, Shepard. I see the guns you're talking about. I'll give them a pounding for you. Sit tight!" his pilot responded. It was only a few seconds later when he saw the overbearing form of the _Nelson_ pass over his shuttle and launch ship-to-ship torpedoes at a vessel that he couldn't identify. The viewport was lit up by a blinding blue light, and he knew that hundreds of the enemy had just met a gruesome and white-hot death in barely an instant.

The sounds of all-out warfare rang in his ears for a minute or two more before a red light lit up above his head, signifying thirty seconds to target landing. He grasped his assault rifle and hardened himself for the first of seven ships to board. The slaughter had not yet begun, not the battle between hands, at least. Ships had been destroyed, lives had been lost, but no one had met sword to sword yet, and that was about to change.

The light changed to yellow.

Ten seconds.

He felt the bottom of the shuttle jolt as it landed in one of the open bays of an enemy cruiser, left ajar so that fighters could come and go in sorties. They were now effectively a foot deep into Hell, and as soon as their shuttle touched the ground, the cacophony of rounds blitzing off of the shuttle started tenfold. The enemy had seen him coming. There were MG positions pointed directly at the doors to his shuttle, and he could hear the rounds pinging off of the hull of the armor. Tali and Garrus looked as nervous as he felt, and he hoped he wasn't about to lead them to their deaths.

A green light.

 _Go._

The door to the shuttle opened and the men piled out of the shuttle as quickly as they could, assault rifles in hand and their shields on full blast. The first man out had barely touched a step to the cold metal of the hangar before the machine gun buzzed past him and tore through his shields. The first round that went through hit him squarely between the eyes and his head banged against the hull of the shuttle as his brain was splattered over the paint. His chest was filled with rounds as the MG held fire over the shuttle's door. The man behind him caught a round through the sternum that severed his spine and he immediately fell straight to the ground like a pound of jello, dead before his foot touched the ground.

Two men, gone in an instant.

Almost all of the rest were luckier; they filed out to the left and right, diving into cover as the machine gun pounded the ground beneath their feet, all but one of the marines, at least. He dived to the right and only managed to make it to the edge of the crate behind which Mathias was in cover. A round caught him in the side as he slid toward cover, and he immediately felt all of the breath leave him as his blood instantly ran cold. Shepard pulled the marine beside him and looked over his wound. He wouldn't make it, not by a long shot.

"I promised my sister... It was only for a year..." and with those final words, he was gone. Shepard's head was ringing, his emotions fighting his battle sense for a moment as memories of Elysium, of Akuze, of all of the battles he'd seen over the years, all of them filled his mind at the same time. He heard his name being called and felt something on his shoulder, but his anger was rising inside of him faster than he could control it. Then, he saw a flash of purple in front of him and he was brought back to the battlefield instantly, the ringing in his head clearing up as he looked at the Quarian in front of him.

"Shepard!? Are you alright, are you hurt?" Tali worriedly asked, ducking down as one of the machine gun's rounds bounced off of the top of the crate just above her head.'

"No... no, I'm not hurt. You're no use in a long range firefight, Tali. I need you to hang back one piece of cover behind me and blow away anything that gets close enough for your shotgun," he said as he raised his hand and tapped into his comms, "Garrus, did you make it through alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, these five marines and I are just fine on the other side of the hangar from you. I've got two from our squad and three from the other shuttle. They're all that made it through. We're pinned in a half-square of crates facing those MG's. No one's wounded. There's no way for me to take a shot. What should we do?" his oldest friend asked, the sounds of ricocheting rounds resounding over the radio with everything else.

"Stay where you are and make sure you don't get overrun. Those machine guns have to stop firing at some point. The moment you know you have a clean shot, I want the bastard on my side of the hangar sniped to oblivion. I'm gonna zig-zag forward and see if I can get a shot on the second gunner while he's focused on you. Sound like a plan?" Shepard returned, reflexively flinching as a tracer flew over his head and ricocheted off of the wall next to the hangar bay.

"Got it, boss. Give the word when you think it's clear to pop up. Knowing me, I'd get myself filled full of holes with guesswork like that," Garrus responded, ever the battlefield jokester. It was his method of coping with the battle, and Shepard understood that. They remained pinned for at least a full minute before the guns mounted on the crates at the far end of the hangar overheated, their gunners fiddling to open their cooling latches.

"Garrus, now!" Shepard commed, listening for the satisfying crack of Garrus's sniper rifle. He wasn't disappointed, as he peaked out of cover to watch one of the gunners, a sergeant by the looks of his chevrons, fall to the ground with a round through his neck. He was off like a rocket, charging from cover to cover as the infantry that was supporting the gunner broke from their positions and moved into combat positions.

"I could really use some help with that second MG!" Garrus's voice filed in through the headset of his helmet. Mathias vaulted over the crate he was behind and used his momentum to smash the rear of his rifle into the face of one of his opponents, pivoting on one foot and kneeling down to shoot the second one in the bottom of the chin, watching in satisfaction as he dropped to the ground without a sound. He saddled up behind the next bit of cover, a plated guardrail leading to a corridor, and answered.

"I'm moving as quickly as I can. Tali, you're good to move up. Keep low, I'll keep moving up as soon as you vault your cover. Go now!" he rattled off orders as was natural to him, waiting for the first smattering of purple to rise over the crates behind him before jumping his own cover and raising his assault rifle to empty a burst into the shields of the stunned man before him. When the man's shields were up, Shepard's thermal magazine clicked out of his gun and he raised his hand without hesitation, picking the man up off of his feet with his biotics and slamming him as hard as he could against the ground, front first. There was no mercy for murderers.

The sound of a shotgun resounded through the room and the head of a man who was charging at him from the side popped before Shepard could turn to attack him as well. His body kept going and slid to a stop at Shepard's feet, and the commander gave a thumbs-up over his shoulder to his girlfriend, too combat-minded at the moment to make a comment on the clean kill. He clicked another thermal clip into his gun and used his biotics to charge through the crates in front of him, splaying them all over the floor of the hangar and sending a man and a woman flying backwards. One surely died when her neck snapped on the railing behind her, but the other slowly started to stand up, disoriented. Not caring to waste his assault rifle ammunition on the man, Mathias pulled out his pistol, stepped on the man's back, pushed him down to the ground, and shot the man in black and gold in the back of the head.

The man's hand was still gripped around his assault rifle. That would have been unacceptable.

"Commander, you won't believe this, but there's... like... a larger version of the _Normandy,_ basically an exact replica, engaging with me! It's faster than the _Nelson_ , but I'm shaking it off as best I can. I need you to take care of those ships as fast as possible!" the voice of Joker filled his headset and Mathias was stunned. So this enemy had the funds to make a carbon copy of the _Normandy_ , wore black and gold uniforms, and attacked innocent people... He looked down at the body of the man beneath his feet and was enraged when he saw the insignia on the sleeves of the man's uniform.

" _Cerberus,_ " Shepard hissed through his teeth, snarling as he pushed forward, a million things he wanted to shout out flying through his mind. He had the perfect shot on the other machine gunner now that he had flanked around. He aimed his rifle and moved forward, crouching and lining up his sights with the head of the man on the gun, then began to gently squeeze the trigger. He finally found the words he was looking for, "You've just started a war you can't win."

He fired.

* * *

 **I'm not sure if it's obvious or not, but his is actually the first ranged combat scene I've ever written. Most of my other writings include swordplay or hand-to-hand, but this is the first time I've used weapons like rifles and pistols.**

 **It feels better, more natural, I'd even say, to use rifles in a story.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I really felt like steam-rolling my way through another chapter, because this story is actually the most interesting to me out of my three, though I do have another Skyrim chapter coming up soon.**

 **Let's get moving.**

* * *

The enemy on the machine gun fell to the side as a full burst of assault rifle rounds from Shepard's Prototype Vindicator burst-rifle broke through his weaker shields and opened the side of his head without effort. The XM-15 Vindicator was set to release in another six months, but Mathias found that the prototype was already better than the M-8 Avenger model as he watched his rounds tear the shields of his enemy apart without effort.

The other Cerberus operatives that were dotted around the machine gun to give it support made a mistake then, turning their attention away from Garrus's squad to focus on him. Their error in judgment was immediately pointed out to them when the one closest to the Spectre was obliterated by the crack of a round from an M-92 Mantis sniper rifle. Immediately, the notably green enemy troops started to panic at being attacked from two different directions at the same time, some firing random shots off in the direction of the sniper shot, and one or two crouching behind cover.

Shepard slid into cover behind a crate just feet away from the enemies and put his rifle on his back, tugging out his Predator pistol and performing an "up-and-over" maneuver, hopping over the crate and landing with his full weight on top of a woman on the other side of the crate, smashing the barrel of the pistol to her head and firing twice, then sprinting forward and moving his weapon from exposed target to exposed target, getting in close with his full-on sprint. He snapped his pistol to the right and planted three shots into a man with a shotgun, a fight he wasn't willing to try surviving, and then ran past the falling form of the man to shove his pistol into the back of one of the enemies that was facing Garrus, thumping two shots into the woman's spine.

He threw the woman's body with a mighty biotic push and watched in satisfaction as her dead body smashed into the two men behind her, then he put two shots in each of those men, making sure they stayed down permanently. He managed to get the last round of his pistol out at the two remaining enemies, but missed as they stopped peaking from behind their crate, pinned by Garrus and unwilling to try snapping shots off at Mathias. The thermal clip ejecting automatically from his weapon, the Spectre walked over to the dead man with the odd Cerberus shotgun and picked it up, sneaking up to the crate behind which his targets hid. He rested the shotgun on top of the crate and waited. The Cerberus operative on his side, a dark-skinned man with a submachine gun, poked his head out to see if he could keep an eye on Shepard, and his vision was immediately filled with the sight of Shepard's shotgun.

"Boo," Shepard said. The shotgun went off and slammed into Shepard's shoulder, the recoil being unexpected from a shotgun of that size, though not unmanageable. The man's head, or what was left of it, snapped back and he flopped onto the ground without a sound. There was only one enemy left, and that meant that it was time for everyone to move up. Making sure that he was on the platoon's comms, he tapped the side of his helmet where the transmitter was, "Garrus, you're clear to move up to my position. There's one left behind this crate, but she's got a grenade launcher and I really don't feel like seeing if she can fire it when she panics."

"Roger. We're moving up to you now. One of the marines will prep a grenade for you to toss over cover. Don't get any blood on my new armor, please," Garrus responded, and Shepard watched as his squad tactically moved up, weapons trained on the crate beside which he stood, the enemy unable to move from cover without getting herself filled with rounds. Tali followed up behind Garrus, though she walked a bit more casually as she kept an eye on the doors leading into the hangar. As the squad reached his position, one of the marines pulled a grenade from his belt and tossed it to Mathias.

Shepard put a finger up to his vocalizer in a shushing motion before carefully and silently pushing the button on the side. It would be primed when he released his finger from the button. With his other hand he counted down from five for the other men and then he released the primer, counting to two and then dropping the grenade directly on top of the woman behind the crate. He sprinted away from the crates and then shouted, "Get to cover, grenade!"

 **BOOM**

He skidded to a stop and turned around to see the crates strewn everywhere but where they had been, a few littering their supplies over the ground as the shrapnel from the grenade had prodded holes into their metal sides. The woman was completely gone save a horribly mangled torso and a half-missing grenade launcher. That was how you dealt with people behind cover.

"Dammit, Shepard, I said not to get blood on my new armor," he heard Garrus joke from beside him, then turned to look at the Turian. There were specks of red all over the left side of his armor, most likely from the woman who had probably stood up to try and run away from the grenade. The marines, high on adrenaline and pumped up from combat, cracked up and let their anxiety flow out through their laughter.

"Sorry, Garrus, guess I just couldn't help myself. Did you notice anything off about the regular troops?" Shepard asked, and Garrus put a talon up to his face in thought.

"The regular troops don't use shields, but the sergeants and up do. I wonder if this is just a test run?" Garrus replied, his blood running cold when he looked at the stony face of his commander, his fears confirmed.

"Cerberus isn't being serious right now. They knew they were going to lose these cruisers. They have a larger navy somewhere else out there," Shepard surmised, his countenance as hard as rock and his anger flaring again. They had slaughtered Tali's people not only to get rid of the Quarian Flotilla, but to test out their new toys.

"Ancestors... This fleet is larger than an Alliance fleet already and they have more!?" Tali worried, gripping her shotgun tightly.

"We can worry about that later. For now, we have to stop them from killing any more Quarians. I won't see them wiped out by some group of terrorists," Mathias finalized, walking toward the door to the interior of the ship.

Their first of seven hours in hell was over, now it was time to dig their way to the surface by taking the ship's bridge.

Smooth sailing.

* * *

"Sir, the _Hillsbrad_ has just reported a boarding party in their second hangar. Hangar two was completely taken by what seems to be a group of humans accompanied by a Turian and a Quarian. Each of them is heavily armed and it seems that one of them has special forces training, perhaps N7," the communications officer of the _Rising Sun_ said, staring at a screen in front of him and typing out exactly what he'd just said into a step-by-step report for the Illusive Man.

"That would be Commander Shepard and his crew. They've come to spring our little trap for them. Do not issue any orders to the _Hillsbrad_ ; leave them to their own defense. The men on these ships are all experienced mercenaries and Cerberus operatives. If they lose the game, it's only their own fault," Yorrich replied, yawning and watching as the battle outside grew more boring with each passing minute. These Quarians didn't put up a good fight, so he was hoping that Shepard would arrive soon enough to distract him from the monotony of flashing red and orange for a bit.

"Yes sir, relaying no orders, sir. Project Effigy reports that the Alliance destroyer is effectively evading all attempts to attack from the _CAW Normandy SR-2_. Whoever their pilot is, sir, he's one hell of an artist behind the controls of a ship," the comms officer replied, flipping on a channel and relaying some orders to the frigates to their port side.

"Oh, he's the best at what he does. No pilot, human or otherwise, would ever be able to match that pilot's experience. Then again, the _Normandy_ isn't piloted by any living being, is it? We'll see what EDI can do for us in the long run. After all, that pilot is only human," the admiral smirked, moving his eyes over the viewport of the bridge as he watched the _Normandy_ chase the Nelson, yellowish-red explosions dotting the sky as its torpedoes and front-facing cannon missed their mark, hitting Cerberus and Quarian vessels alike, a testament to the lack of care put into the aim.

All Cerberus operatives were expendable... all save Project Effigy, that was.

* * *

"Garrus, move cover to the left and make your shoulder hit the wall of the corridor; I want you melded to that hallway, rifle out! Tali, take cover in the bulkhead of that doorway! You don't pop cover unless one of them gets close! Reeds, Kenson, Donovan, you're on rear-guard. Get cover and make sure no one hits us from behind. If they do, none of us will have any cover, so it's your job to make sure that doesn't happen. Elson, Reeves, you're on me! We're making an assault push forward through the corridor. Tali, when we pass you, wait until we get past the next bulkhead and then move into it. I don't want any more casualties today!" Shepard shouted out, firing bursts from his assault rifle and giving orders at the same time.

The team had fought their way out of the hangar and into the corridors of the cruiser, but now that they were halfway to the bridge, the resistance was getting tighter and tighter. Despite the fact that cruisers weren't very large ships, these cruisers were supercruisers, basically dreadnoughts with the same speed and function as regular cruisers. There seemed to be an entire brigade complement of Cerberus troops on the vessel, and Shepard would take delight in plunging its crew and complement of more than six thousand into the darkness of space once he was done. Cerberus really had started a war that they would never win.

Tali sprinted past him and slid into cover behind the bulkhead of a side-door leading to a barracks of some sort, the men from which had already been killed or severely wounded in the hallway ahead. Garrus, true to his commander's orders, banged the pauldron of his armor up against the wall of the corridor and made himself as small a target as a Turian could be without cover. The rear-guard found cover in the doorways leading into random holds of the ship, ducking back into the room every time a round strayed too near to their heads. Finally, Shepard and his two marines made a death-push straight forward through the corridor, unloading assault rifle rounds into the Cerberus mercenaries in front of them and relentlessly tearing through their ranks, the superior training of an N7 Spectre and two Alliance marines outweighing that of green mercenaries.

Mathias pounded three bursts into a sergeant that had started barking orders out and then turned the rifle to the left to empty a burst into the private beside him, stepping forward and firing again at a mercenary that had almost successfully slid into safety behind a bulkhead. The first two men hadn't even hit the ground before the third started to fall as well. Each of the three of them slammed into the corridor at the same time, two rifles and a submachine gun falling beside them with a loud clatter. It hardly made a difference, as the moment the three of them went down, another fireteam came out of a room behind them and replaced them. Now there were four of them, a testament to the name "Cerberus," Mathias presumed.

"Garrus, target the sergeants as they appear. Don't waste ammo on the rankers unless we're in a desperate situation. Reeves, load incendiary ammunition; I want that LMG firing a constant stream of flaming rounds!" Commander Shepard shouted through the vocalizer of his helmet, tapping the thermal magazine out of his Vindicator and slamming another one into it in less than a second. Immediately, the sound of a light machine gun took over all sound in the corridor and the enemies were forced to stay behind cover lest they be shredded by a hail of superheated rounds.

"Shepard, an officer just peaked cover but his shields stopped my round cold and he ducked back in to avoid the LMG. The bastards are using top of the line shields on the officers. You'll need a lot of firepower to take them down," Garrus's voice came in through comms, though Shepard barely registered it as he shot forward with the two marines, closing in on the enemy position as quickly as possible.

"I've got it handled, Garrus. Squad, move up, same strategy. Rear-guard, move slowly. Don't make a mistake just because you're advancing. Move out!" Shepard commanded before grabbing a Cerberus private he'd managed to get close to and tossing him into the corridor to be torn apart by machine gun fire. The man screamed as he was tossed like a ragdoll into the line of fire, but was silent in just a few seconds. The marine with the LMG stopped firing to reload and immediately there were five Cerberus operatives out of cover and firing.

His shield took a few rounds from a submachine gun before he managed to react, but he instantly dialed in on the priority targets and started firing bursts from his rifle faster than he ever had before. He was pissed off that this was happening to the Quarians of all people, the ones that had been screwed over by council space for more than three centuries, and most importantly the people that raised his girlfriend to be the way she was. Two privates had fallen before any more shots could snap his way and he watched with chief satisfaction as their sergeant's head practically exploded, the sound of a sniper rifle echoing throughout the hallway. Garrus had done exactly as told, and it was paying off.

He was forced behind a bulkhead when the Cerberus captain threw a biotic pulse through the hallway, blowing the other two marines backwards. Fortunately, Garrus and Tali were on the situation before anything else could happen. The sniper pinned the officer down with a shot from his rifle and Tali put two rounds into the last private in the corridor, turning her gun on the officer and pinging a round off of his cover as her shot went wide. It was all the time that Mathias needed to move forward and deal with the situation himself.

He sprinted up the corridor toward the captain and put his gun on his back, catching the officer by surprise and grabbing the man by the back of the neck. He didn't run into the bulkhead, instead continuing to run past the door with his arm and the head of the captain extended to his left. He charged his biotics and as soon as it seemed like the man's head would slam into the doorway, he launched the man forward with a blue shockwave, listening as the snapping sound of bone filled his ears, the officer's face hitting the doorway at speeds faster than sound.

"Block that with your shields, you bastard," Shepard prodded, unholstering his pistol and starting to walk down the corridor, only holding up for a second as the rest of the team caught up. They would have another five minutes of walking to do before the next fight. Shepard figured that they should make the most of it. The marines looked at one another and then down at the officer as they passed him. They would have to remind each other never to piss off their commanding officer.

* * *

"Shield capacity at fifty percent, Admiral. The small-arms fire is draining our shields, but it won't damage our hull. We can't take a shot from that dreadnought, though, or else we won't even have any barriers to protect us," a Quarian navy officer said to Han'Gerrel, the admiral leaning forward and looking at the report for himself.

"I hope that Alliance destroyer we picked up on scanners can pull off a miracle, or else the Quarian people may not live to see Rannoch again. Get me a report from each of the other admirals. I want the status of the entire Migrant Fleet- casualties, ships, everything. I need to know just how much we're losing because some asshole wanted to test out his new fleet," Admiral Gerrel replied, palming his mask in frustration as he knew that the losses would be unacceptable.

"Sir, would you like someone to hail the Alliance vessel on comms?" another officer called from the other side of the room.

"We don't know why it's here or who's on it, but I don't really care so long as they can give these unknown bosh'tets a run for their work. Still, it would be nice to know who's basically throwing their life away for us. See if you can get comms connection with them and put the conversation up on all of the admiralty ships," the admiral ordered. The officer hailed the _Nelson_ , and a moment later, Joker's voice came through the comms and his face on a screen to the side. All of the admirals would be able to see and hear him, and speak into their own comms.

" _SSV Nelson_ here! You ordered a savior on a silver platter?" the jokester pilot jested, leaning a bit to the left as he piloted the ship to port side to avoid the _Normandy SR-2_ 's main cannon.

"Alliance ship _SSV_ _Nelson_ , you're a human vessel, and a reasonably new one at that. Not that we don't appreciate the help, but there's a massive full-scale war going on outside. Who is your commanding officer and why are you assisting us in fighting them?" Admiral Rael'Zorrah's voice filtered in through the comms feed, Tali's father being rather cautious of the good intentions of the _Nelson's_ intervention.

"Oh, easy questions, huh? Why don't the in-combat quizzes ever challenge me? I'm Joker, the best goddamned pilot in the galaxy, thanks for asking. Our commanding officer is the Hero of the Citadel, Lieutenant Commander Mathias Shepard. As for why we're here, well... Personally, I think Shepard just wants another item on his long list of nicknames, "Savior of the Quarians" or something, but the official reason is that he's pissed off that these guys are picking on the Quarians," Joker replied.

"The Hero of the Citadel is here to fight for the Quarian people? What interest does he have in our survival?" Han'Gerrel asked, though he had a feeling he knew, given how Shala'Raan had come to him to excuse Tali for service with Shepard.

"Oh, well, he's got a slight vested interest in the Quarians, seeing as our head engineer, Tali'Zorah, is a Quarian. Any other questions? Give me a hard one; I've always wanted to take a test and fly a destroyer like a fighter at the same time," Joker... joked.

"Tali is on that ship with him? That bastard drew my daughter into this suicide mission?" Rael'Zorah sternly asked, his voice strained from contained distress.

"No, sir, Tali'Zorah isn't on the ship right now. In fact, neither is Commander Shepard. They're both on the Cerberus cruiser all the way to the left. It's a great tourist spot, you know- perfect view," the pilot replied, leaning to the right as he steered the ship to starboard, forcing the _Normandy_ to destroy one of Cerberus's own frigates due to the lack of care from the commanding officer inside.

"We'll talk about this later. First, let's focus on surviving this damned conflict. Your help is appreciated, _Nelson._ If your man can get those cruisers off of that dreadnought, we should be able to face it down without too many losses. See to it that the job is done. Admiral Han'Gerrel, closing comms," Han'Gerrel stated, and then the communications officer shut off the comms channel. Admiral Gerrel sighed and read the first casualty report of many, though his mood was slightly more upbeat as he thought of the conversation.

With the Hero of the Citadel on their side, the battle had just tilted slightly more in their favor.

Hopefully.


	6. Chapter 6

**The sixth chapter is here, and hopefully y'all will enjoy it.**

"Get the munitions door open, Tali! I want those guns down now!" Shepard fired a few bursts from his rifle as he stood in front of Tali, taking a few rounds to the shield as he covered her. It was just her, Garrus, and Mathias- one of the marines had been hit by a concussive round and then shot in the chest on his way down, the other was hit by a grenade fired from the launcher of a trigger-happy Cerberus mercenary.

"I'm going as quickly as I can, Mathias, but it'll be another minute! Just hold out," the Quarian responded. She was tapping away at her omni-tool as quickly as her three-fingered hand would let her. While Cerberus's lesser troops were green, their technology was amazing compared to what she was used to going through, and so it would take a few extra moments for her to break through their locked doors.

"Shepard, I'm out of thermal clips! Toss me one!" Garrus yelled, sliding the last of his clips into his rifle and taking the head off of a Cerberus marine. The anthropocentric organization's first cruiser had run out of cannon-fodder to send their way and they were now facing off against the marines on-board, a step up from the mercenaries they had been facing. They even had shields and medium armor, something that made killing them much harder.

"Last magazine; make every shot count," Mathias shouted back, firing one last burst before reaching to his bandoleer and tugging off a thermal clip, tossing it to Garrus, who released his own empty clip and slammed the last one into its slot, firing another shot as a marine peaked from cover. The man's shield absorbed the shot and he leaned out of the doorway to light up the hallway with tracers as he held down the trigger of his assault rifle for a long burst.

His shoulder twisted to the left and then his chest emptied as the first round of a burst from Shepard's rifle finished his shields and the last two ripped through his armor without effort. The Commander ejected his magazine and put his rifle on his back, reaching to his hip for his pistol and raising it to pin a sergeant to his cover. Just as the last round from his pistol cleared the barrel, the gunnery doors slid open with the sound of hydraulics and Tali urgently tapped his back with her hand.

"The door is open, get in so I can close it!" her desperate voice called out. He moved to the other side of the hallway and tapped Garrus on the shoulder to let him know that they were moving, took his shotgun off of his waist, and popped through the door gun first, Garrus following behind him and finishing off his thermal clip by shooting the same sergeant they had pinned down earlier in the sternum, watching the man crumple onto the ground.

Mathias's gun was pushed down by an unarmed man with gunnery sergeant chevrons & rockers, then his head tilted back and the front of his helmet made a metallic sound as the enemy who had caught him by surprise punched it in the visor. He recovered and raised his gun back up in time to watch the man cradle his broken wrist, the result of slamming his fist into a reinforced plate of armor. When he realized the error of his ways, the sergeant reached for his pistol with his left hand, but stopped when two of his ribs were broken by the butt of Shepard's shotgun.

Commander Shepard looked around the first gunnery deck of the ship, one of the three on port side, and noticed that the gunnery sergeant was the only one that was armed, the rest standing at their posts with whatever they were doing when he entered dropped as soon as they saw him knock down their NCO with his gun. He registered the sight of Garrus on his right, rifle pointed at the door, then walked over to the gunnery sergeant and put his foot on the man's chest, aiming his shotgun down at the man. He shrugged his shoulders up and ducked his head a slight when a shot pinged off of the doorway just a few feet away.

"Close that door, Tali! You, fucker, you'd best think long and hard about your next few words. What type of round are you firing at the Quarian Migrant Fleet?" he asked at gunpoint.

"Go to hell, you goddamned suit-rat fucker," the man spat out. Shepard looked at the man in surprise, a bit alarmed that he seemed to know about the relationship he had with his Quarian crewmate. The man had obviously been in Cerberus a while with those viewpoints, or perhaps a hardline supporter of Terra Firma before joining the organization. The sound of the door sliding and locking shut behind him cut the Spectre off from his next reply and he couldn't help but grin grimly down at the man.

"Wrong answer. Hey, Garrus, I hear you like target practice. What's say I drag this guy to the other side of the deck and we'll see how many shots you can put into him before he dies?" the N7 threatened, and the sergeant cringed into the ground as the commander dug his boot into his chest.

"Sounds like fun. I've always wanted to see how quickly I could fire this thing," the Turian responded.

"Okay, okay! Just don't let your pet dino shoot me and I'll talk," he wisely decided, taking in a deep breath when his ribs were relieved of the pressure of Mathias's armored boots, "We're loading in APTD ammunition- armor piercing, timed detonation. They shoot off into space about twice as quick as most other rounds and hit ships about twice as hard. If they get wedged in a ship, they explode after a while. Things go off with about the strength of a small nuke if you get 'em to hit the right spot on the larger ships."

"You bosh'tets! You're hitting civilian ships with massive ordinance rounds!? They don't even stand a chance against rounds like that!" Tali's voice interrupted anything Garrus or Mathias had to say, and the Spectre put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze and then looking back down at the man.

"Cerberus aren't equipping their men with top-notch gear. I know The Illusive Man can afford the highest ranking armors and shields. Why are all of your men cannon-fodder?" he inquired.

"Heh, he-heh... What, you thought The Ill-" he was cut off by his own coughing as he sputtered some blood onto the deck of the ship, "Euch... You thought The Illusive Man didn't know that you were coming? We all knew we were heading into a possible Commander Shepard situation. Damned officers wouldn't shut up about it. Guess that's why the NCO's should really be the ones who give the orders. Never would have sent my men into something like this without proper gear," he finished.

"Do you know what The Illusive Man has planned for my crew?" Shepard asked.

"Look, y'damned bastard, I'm just the fucking gunnery chief. You want answers, you have to get to the man in charge. He's not even on this ship, so good luck getting there," the NCO coughed again, struggling to keep his head off of the deck.

"Who is in charge then?" Garrus spoke up from the side, dusting off his sniper rifle and looking around for thermal clips absently.

"Some viking named Yorrich. He's a right ugly one, that one, and fucking mean. Won't let you get to him, though. We had plans to retreat if you even got close to the dreadnought," the sergeant replied, obviously not fond of the admiral, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go lean up against a wall somewhere and wait to drown in my own blood."

Mathias blinked at the blunt statement by the man who was dying from internal bleeding. Medi-gel definitely wasn't going to help someone who had internal bleeding, and Shepard wasn't entirely keen on helping the enemy anyway. Still, the guy had given them information. It was a moot point to think about it, though.

"What do we do now, Shepard? We're only about halfway through the ship and the bridge is a long way away," Garrus asked.

"Yes, I don't think we'll be able to charge up the hallways like we have been so far. There's not much cover either way. We can't just sprint through the enemy and hit the bridge like in a Volus transport," Tali said.

Mathias thought about what to do for a moment, scanning the gunnery deck for a moment and letting his eyes rest on the ports for the massive port-side guns. He looked for the munitions and spotted the rounds to be fired through the gun no more than half the deck over. An idea formed in his head and he smiled a charmingly sinister smile. Turning to the gunnery crew, he raised his shotgun into the air and fired a round into the ceiling of the deck.

"Alright, listen up! As of right now, I'm your new commanding officer. This shotgun is my XO. If you disobey my orders, I'll introduce you to the XO formally. Load those guns up with those armor piercing rounds and let's have them pointed at the next cruiser in line. Where's the viewport on this deck?" he asked. The new gunnery chief, the corporal that had just been field-promoted to gunnery sergeant, pointed to the viewport with a shaky finger. It was up a short ladder leading into what looked to be a small recreational room. It was where the gunnery crew would rest when not on duty.

"Shepard, you're either a genius or a madman. Those rounds will pass through those cruisers like nothing, but what about the dreadnought? Won't we be open to fire by the rest of the fleet?" Garrus questioned, watching as the rest of the crew made sure the guns were loaded, most deciding that whatever their pay was was not worth their lives.

"The Illusive Man knew that I would possibly appear here. He either really wants me dead, or he wants me alive for some reason. When Joker came over the comms to tell us that there was a clone of the _Normandy_ out there, I gave it some thought. He wouldn't need to lure me away from my mission to kill me, and my location isn't necessarily ever a secret. If he wanted me dead, he would have just attacked the _Nelson_ alone. Instead, he went through the trouble of luring us out by attacking the Quarians. It's harder to capture something than to kill it, and so that level of difficulty indicates that he didn't want me dead. TIM needs me alive for some reason, and I intend to find out what that reason is," Shepard replied, grabbing onto the ladder and climbing up to the viewport.

In the gunnery lounge, he found an intercom leading to the gunnery deck beside the doorway, most likely to communicate between rooms without moving back and forth. From the viewport, he was able to see the next cruiser in the formation, a heavy cruiser of the same design as the Systems Alliance. Its shields would most likely be of a heightened strength in comparison to the Alliance's, but at this range, it would hardly matter to the APTD rounds. The rounds would hopefully pass through the first ship and quite possibly the second and third at nearly point-blank range for ships.

"Tali, are the guns ready to fire?" he commed in. The girl examined the process of loading for the guns for a second before putting her hand up to the side of her mask to return comms.

"They are now, Shepard. Do you want to give the order?" she asked. Instead of responding to her, he put his finger up to the intercom on the wall and looked out the viewport, waiting a few seconds to make sure the ships weren't moving before turning back to the microphone and letting his voice come through.

"All stations, prepare to fire on my order. If there are any last-second adjustments to make, do it now. Brace deck for collective fire... Fire!" he shouted through the microphone, turning his head toward the viewport and watching as the four guns' rounds passed through the cruiser beside their own, causing the Cerberus vessel to break into millions of pieces and float off in every direction, flames licking at the insides only to snuff themselves out in the anti-atmospheric environment of space. When the ship had spread only for a few seconds, Shepard could see through and noted with cheer that the next ship in line had also broken into pieces.

In another few seconds, he saw a bright flash of light and shielded his eyes, looking back out and seeing the next three cruisers falling out of formation, one completely destroyed and the other two crippled beyond hope. In a single barrage, the four heavy guns on their cruiser had decimated five of the remaining seven heavy combat vessels. All that was left was a cruiser that he noted was now adjusting course to take cover behind the dreadnought, the dreadnought itself, and the combat frigates that were engaging the Quarian combat ships in ship-to-ship fire.

Without the support from their major combat vessels, the Cerberus frigates would be overwhelmed by the Quarian Navy. They were already on the path to victory.

* * *

Jeff "Joker" Moreau was in a bit of a situation. It wasn't because of the _Normandy_ clone behind the _Nelson_ \- well, technically it was, but it was more of a secondary result rather than a direct cause-and-effect. He was in a bit of a situation because he had to watch his flightpath more closely than he was used to. The guns on the frigate chasing him were surprisingly powerful and any shot fired by the main cannon destroyed or weakened a ship, or it passed harmlessly (but not so much- every shot fired would continue until it hit something eventually) into space. That being true, Joker had to make sure that whenever the enemy ship fired, he was not above a Quarian vessel, as if he was, that vessel was doomed to destruction.

Thus, his current predicament. He was running out of Cerberus vessels over which to fly, and because of that, the chances of his enemy destroying a Quarian vessel was increasing exponentially with each passing minute. He needed to find a way to get behind the _Normandy_ clone so that he could target it with his main cannons, otherwise he would be looking at a few thousand Quarian lives on his conscience. He didn't feel like having that sort of guilt on his mind, so he figured he would have to pull some crafty maneuvers or else things would turn for the worst.

He felt the ship shake as the main gun of the _Normandy_ clone fired a shot that passed directly above and slammed into a floating piece of debris that rocketed off to the side and sliced into the hull of a Quarian destroyer. Joker heard the captain of the destroyer shout over the comms that they were losing mass effect cohesion. Joker tapped a few buttons on the console in front of him and shot the ship upward and around the destroyer. He pulled up targeting solutions for the _Nelson_ 's main cannons and made sure to keep an eye on the _Normandy._ He had just lost his first Quarian ship to direct fire from that ship's guns.

He was out of time. He needed to destroy that ship now.

* * *

"Sir, we've lost most of our escorts, but our guns are locked on the boarded cruiser. Would you like to give a fire order?" the ordinance officer asked, looking up at Yorrich and expecting an answer to the affirmative. The admiral thumbed his chin and looked out over the battle throughout the space of the Hades Cluster. While he had started losing the battle following Shepard's appearance, he was still able to look out over the enemy fleet and see that massive amounts of casualties had been dealt to them in a short amount of time. It was most likely a good idea to pull back- their main objective was not achieved, but The Illusive Man hadn't expected success the first time around anyway.

"No, our benefactor needs Shepard alive. Leave that ship alone and have the navigator prepare the ship for a retreat," Yorrich replied. The ordinance lieutenant was taken aback, but nevertheless made contact with the navigator and had the new mission course set. The _Rising Sun_ kicked its main engines into gear and moved out of the area more swiftly a dreadnought should have been able to. Behind them, no ships followed. Yorrich tightened his glove hands and walked out of the bridge to take a conference with TIM in the Quantum Entanglement Device communications room.

He tapped the communicator in his ear and opened comms to the first mate, "Commander, has Project Effigy's ship followed us out of combat, or are they still engaged with Shepard's ship?"

There was a moment of static and he could hear the tapping of fingers on a console before his first officer responded, "Sir, the _Normandy_ _SR-2_ is still engaged in combat. Would you like to give the retreat order?"

"Not at all. This is all according to plan. Carry on, Commander," the admiral replied, a snarl-like smile covering his face. The Illusive Man was correct; his little toy really was as brash as the actual Commander Shepard.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Mathias watched through the viewport of the gunnery deck as the massive dreadnought loomed over his half-captured cruiser with its thrusters online, swiftly carrying it in the direction of the nearest mass relay. The other ships of the Cerberus fleet failed to follow, and he watched a high-impact round slam into the remaining cruiser with enough force to destroy the bridge and cripple its ability to issue orders. He watched the dreadnought switch from backwards thrust to turn around, and then take off immediately. When he realized that the _Rising Sun_ was in full retreat, he punched the wall next to the intercom and moved out onto the main gunnery deck, climbing down the ladder and stopping in front of Garrus and Tali.

"You two, get whatever you need to head back to the _Nelson_ and let's get out of here. Their dreadnought is getting away and I don't think we'll be back soon enough to follow. Tali, I need you to get us onto the migrant fleet to talk with the admiralty board. We need to figure out everything that went on in person, and I think... you should know how many we didn't save. Do you think you could do that?" he shot out, still a bit irked at not being able to stop the dreadnought, especially if the _Nelson_ was still facing that _Normandy_ clone.

"I think I can get us on board after what you just did, but Mathias... There were only seventeen million of us before this attack... The losses have to be..." she took in a sharp breath and looked toward the door, and Shepard put a hand on her shoulder. Deciding this wasn't the place for a heart-to-heart, though, he moved past her to the door, leaned against it with one hand, and put the other to his ear to get Joker on comms.

"Joker, status update! Have you dealt with the problem yet?" Shepard ordered. He was met with the obvious sounds of naval combat and a reply from the pilot.

"Negative, Commander. Whoever the pilot is, they're good enough to keep behind me. Haven't hit me yet, though. I'm waiting for the Quarians to finish up with those Cerberus frigates so they can help get it off my tail," Joker replied, surprisingly serious for a man who spent most of his time joking.

"We're stuck on this cruiser until you get out of your situation, so see if you can speed up the Quarians' efforts at all. Shepard out," he said, turning back to his two dextro companions and leaning up against the wall, sliding down onto his backside, holding his shotgun in his lap. Garrus found a spot on a crate to sit and examine his rifle, and Tali came up next to her boyfriend and sat down, staring at the ground and losing herself in thought about the horrific events of their day.

Shepard, not knowing what else to do in the face of his girlfriend's race barely being saved from annihilation, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her into his chest, giving off a terribly shaky sigh and just staring at one of the guns on the other side of the room.

Why couldn't he even go a year in service without nearly witnessing a genocide?

* * *

Joker let out an excited shout as he watched the last Cerberus assault frigate split into pieces. Flying a loop around one of the larger pieces of an enemy destroyer, an impressive display of agility for a ship nearly a time and a half as large as the _Normandy SR-2_ behind it, he took a second to register the destroyed ships in the warzone. There were destroyed Quarian and Cerberus ship parts everywhere, but there were still plenty of Quarian frigates around to help him out in combat. Hailing one of the Quarian captains, he pointed the fleet toward the ship tailing him.

Immediately, the battle started to turn more toward his own favor, and he bobbed and weaved throughout the battlefield with the _Nelson_ , dragging the enemy ship through a gauntlet of fire from the allied frigates and a destroyer or two. A few moments later, he managed to draw the ship into the firing path of a few torpedoes and then performed a backwards loop, watching as his target seemed to lose track of him and turned off to the side. He followed behind and slammed his fingers into buttons and levers almost hard enough to snap his bones. He was on the chase.

The enemy ship swerved from port to starboard, performing every maneuver possible to attempt to shake Joker off, but the experienced Alliance pilot was too skilled to be fooled so easily. Instead, he tracked every movement that the _Normandy SR-2_ made, and held targeting solutions on the ship until he had a clear shot. After ten minutes of firing the cannon on the front and making some near misses on the stealth frigate, he had an opportunity, but he only had a nanosecond of a window to fire, and he instantly jumped through that window.

The enemy ship flew on a straightaway for just over a second, and that was enough time for Joker to get corrected firing solutions and fire all ordinance. It proved to be a fatal mistake on his enemy's part, and he watched as the _Normandy_ _SR-2's_ shields dissipated and an explosion rocked the rear of the ship. The _Normandy_ clone, having proven a difficult and dangerous opponent for Joker, drifted forward long enough to slam into a piece of floating debris, and then stopped as the debris continued forward. The _Normandy SR-2_ was "dead in the water," so to speak.


End file.
